The Senate has thrown their support behind Senate President Godswill Akpabio after Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central Senatorial District launched a N100.3 billion defamation lawsuit against him.
The lawsuit arose from a disagreement between Akpabio and a female Kogi lawmaker last week over the transfer of her seat.
In her action, CV/737/25, Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed slander and sought N100.3 billion in damages.
However, in an interview with The PUNCH, Senate spokesman Senator Adaramodu claimed Akpoti-Uduaghan will go nowhere because “the parliament enjoys absolute privilege.”
“We are not aware of any suit for now, but let me state here that the parliament enjoys absolute privilege in the conduct of its affairs, and what it does in a proper legislative setting is not actionable. This is all we can say for now,” Adaramodu said.
Chronicle NG reports that Akpoti-Uduaghan and Akpabio were engaged in a heated verbal exchange during plenary last week when the Kogi lawmaker protested the relocation of her seat.
As the argument escalated, the Senate President called on the Senate security to walk the female senator out of the chambers, but fellow lawmakers’ intervention saved the situation from degenerating out of hand.
In an interview with Channels Television on February 21, Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu chastised Akpoti-Uduaghan for approaching the Senate President, warning the first-time legislator that the Senate is not for show.
“What we are saying is that the National Assembly is not for content creation in entertainment. The National Assembly is for serious business,” the Senate spokesman said.
However, in a complaint, CV/737/25, brought before the Federal Capital Territory High Court on February 25, 2025, the Kogi legislator accused the Senate President of defamation.
Other defendants in the complaint include the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Mfon Patrick, Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her lawyer Victor Giwa, claimed that the Senate President made defamatory statements and that his aide disseminated them on Facebook.
According to the lawyer, 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 claimed that the statement was defamatory, inflammatory, and insulting, lowering his client’s dignity in the eyes of her colleagues and the general public.
Akpoti-Uduaghan is, therefore, seeking, among others, “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.”
She also prayed the court to restrain the defendants and their associates from making further defamatory statements against her on any platform.
She also prayed for “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.”
Furthermore, Akpoti-Uduaghan sought the court to order the defendants to pay her N100 billion in general damages and N300 million in 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,” she prayed.
