Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has filed a lawsuit against the Senate President Godswill Akpabio for alleged defamation.
Chronicle NG reports that Akpoti-Uduaghan raised concerns after her Senate seat was reassigned following a reshuffle triggered by opposition members switching to the majority wing.
She rejected the relocation, resulting in a conflict with the Senate President.
However, in a suit filed before the Federal Capital Territory High Court on February 25, 2025, the President of the Senate, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and Mfon Patrick, the Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President, were named as the second and third defendants.
In the complaint, CV/737/25, Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her lawyer Victor Giwa, claimed that the Senate President made defamatory statements that were then published on Facebook by his aide.
According to him, 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 opined that the statement was defamatory, provocative, and disparaging, lowering his client’s dignity in the eyes of her colleagues and the public.
He stated, “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 asked the court to stop the defendants and their associates from making any additional defamatory statements against her on any platform.
“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 stated.
Furthermore, Akpoti-Uduaghan requested that the defendants pay her N100 billion in general damages and N300 million in litigation fees.
“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.
