Nigeria: Assassination Claim – Senator Natasha Docked, Gets N50m Bail
Abuja — The Federal Government, on Thursday, arraigned the suspended Senator for Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, before an Abuja High Court sitting at Maitama.
The lawmaker was docked for allegedly making false and defamatory claims against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and a former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello.
FG, in the charge marked: CR/297/25, told the court that the defendant falsely alleged that Akpabio and Bello were behind a plot to assassinate her.
It told the court that the defendant, while appearing as guest on a live television program, alleged that the duo held a meeting where they agreed that she should be eliminated in Kogi state under circumstances that would appear as a mob action.
It specifically accused her of making false imputation which she knew would harm the reputation of Senator Akpabio and ex-governor Bello.
According to the charge, by making such false imputation that tarnished the image of others, the defendant committed an offence under
391 of the Penal Code, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990.
The alleged offence was said to be punishable under section 392 of the same law.
Giving particulars of the offence in count-one of the charge, FG told the court that the defendant committed the alleged crime on April 3, during a live broadcast on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Meanwhile, the embattled lawmaker who was accompanied to the court by her husband and associates, pleaded not guilty to the charge that was read to her before trial Justice Chizoba Orji.
Following her plea, the prosecuting counsel, Mr. David Kaswe, applied for her remand in a correctional facility pending the determination of the case.
FG’s lawyer insisted that the defendant posed a flight risk, alleging that it took several efforts to serve a copy of the charge on her.
However, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, Mr. Roland Otaru, SAN, urged the court to grant her bail on self recognition, insisting that the case was not an indictable offence.
Otaru, SAN, further noted that the maximum punishment for the charge is two years imprisonment, even as he begged the court to exercise its discretion in favour of the defendant.
In her ruling, Justice Orji held that she was minded to accede to the defendant’s request for bail.
Consequently, aside from granting her bail to the tune of N50million, the court held that she must produce a surety who must be a person of integrity that owns a landed property in Abuja.
The court said its decision to release the defendant on bail was anchored on section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as sections 163 and 165 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015.
The case was subsequently adjourned till September 23 for trial.
Among those that were in court for the proceeding included a former Minister of Education, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili and a civil rights activist, Aisha Yesufu.
The suspended Kogi lawmaker who is currently serving a six-month suspension from the Senate, is facing a separate defamation charge the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice entered against her before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
By Vanguard.
