Setting the Record Straight on Defamation Case Involving Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan

Jackson Udom

On December 5, 2025, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan again resorted to social media to claim incorrectly and misleadingly that the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, had only just filed a multi-billion-naira defamation suit against her over her unfounded allegations of sexual misconduct.

These allegations, as the public is well aware, have never been supported by a single shred of evidence before the Senate committee or before any competent authority. For the avoidance of doubt, the facts are clear, verifiable and already before the court.

Following Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s grave and unsubstantiated accusations capable of inflicting severe reputational damage, Senator Akpabio exercised his constitutional right to seek legal redress. The suit was filed over three months ago. Its progress was temporarily delayed by routine administrative processes and the normal judicial procedures.

Upon the resumption of judicial activities on the file, several attempts were made by the court’s bailiff to personally serve Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan with the originating processes. Each attempt failed due to her deliberate evasion of service, as deposed to under oath in the bailiff’s affidavit now before the court. Only after these repeated evasions did the court, in November this year granted the application for substituted service.

Her claim that the matter was “just filed” is therefore false, misleading and intended to distort public understanding of the case. We reiterate that legal disputes are resolved in courtrooms, not through orchestrated narratives and staged outrage on social-media platforms. The online applause Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan habitually seeks cannot replace credible evidence, legal procedure, or judicial scrutiny.

This behaviour is consistent with her pattern during her six-month Senate suspension, an entirely lawful disciplinary measure she sought to delegitimise through digital agitation, only to ultimately serve the suspension in full. It is time for Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to present the “evidence” she claims to possess before a court of competent jurisdiction, rather than relying on sensationalised commentary designed solely to attract sympathy and obscure the facts.

The law is guided by proof, procedure and due process, not sentiment, not emotion, and certainly not social-media theatrics. She is advised to properly instruct her lawyers, file her defence, and finally provide the evidence she purports to have for the baseless allegations she has peddled over this matter. This is that her golden opportunity. The public, the media, and the legal community now await her defence to the defamatory claims of the plaintiff.

·         Udom is Special Assistant to President of the Senate on Media