Sen. Natasha sues Senate President Akpabio for defamation, seeks N100 Billion in damages

Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has filed a lawsuit against the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over alleged defamation.

The suit follows a dispute after her Senate seat was reassigned due to a reshuffle caused by opposition members switching to the majority wing.Akpoti-Uduaghan opposed the relocation, leading to a confrontation with the Senate President.

In the suit filed before the Federal Capital Territory High Court on February 25, 2025, Akpabio, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and his Senior Legislative Aide, Mfon Patrick, were named as the second and third defendants.

The lawsuit, marked CV/737/25, alleges that defamatory statements were made by the Senate President and later published by his aide on Facebook.

According to her lawyer, Victor Giwa, the post, titled “Is the Local Content Committee of the Senate Natasha’s Birthright?”, included a statement suggesting that Akpoti-Uduaghan believed being a lawmaker was only about “pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers.”

Giwa argued that the statement was defamatory, provocative, and damaging to his client’s reputation.

“A DECLARATION that the words, ‘It is bottled anger by the Kogi lawmaker, who knows nothing about legislative rules.

She thinks being a lawmaker is all about pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers,’ used and written by the third defendant at the prompting of the first and second defendants, is defamatory and intended to cause public opprobrium and disaffection toward the claimant,” he stated.

Akpoti-Uduaghan has also sought a court order restraining the defendants and their associates from making further defamatory statements against her.

“AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the defendants, whether acting by themselves or through their agents, privies, assigns, or associates, from further publishing or causing to be published the said defamatory words or any similar publications about the claimant on social media or in any other manner capable of defaming her,” she demanded.Additionally, she is asking the court to award her N100 billion in general damages and N300 million for litigation costs.

“An order for the payment of the sum of N100,000,000,000 as general damages. An order for the payment of the sum of N300,000,000 as the cost of action,” her lawyer stated.