JUDIACIARY AUTHORIZES SENATOR NATASHA’S N5Om BAIL, SCHEDULES TRIAL FOR SEP. 23
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By Alice Idowu
The Superior Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, convening in Maitama, has approved bail for the suspended Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, in the amount of N50 million.
The tribunal, in a decision articulated by Justice Chizoba Orji, dismissed the motion submitted by the Federal Government seeking to have the accused, who was indicted on a three-count allegation, detained in prison custody while awaiting the resolution of the case against her.
Justice Orji held that she found no reason to deny the defendant bail, saying there was sufficient evidence that she is willing to face her trial.
Consequently, aside from the N50m, the court held that the defendant must produce one surety who must be a person of integrity that owns a landed property in Abuja.
The court based its decision on section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as section 163 and 165 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
The case was subsequently adjourned till September 23 for trial.
FG is prosecuting the lawmaker for allegedly making a false claim that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and a former Governor of Kogi state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, were behind plot to assassinate her.
In the charge marked: CR/297/25, FG alleged that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was listed as the sole defendant, made the false and defamatory remarks when she appeared as guest on live television.
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It explicitly charged her with making “an allegation, while aware or having grounds to suspect that such allegation would damage the reputation of an individual. ”
As per the allegation, by rendering such inaccurate assertions that besmirched the reputation of others, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan perpetrated an infraction under Section 391 of the Penal Code, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990.
It added that the alleged offence is 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.
Among those listed as witnesses in the matter, included the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and a former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who were cited as nominal complainants.
Other witnesses billed to testify in the case are two police officers that investigated the matter, Maya Iliya and Abdulhafiz Garba; a Senator, Asuquo Ekpenyong and one Sandra Duru.
The indictment, dated May 16, followed a correspondence Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan dispatched to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, in which she alleged that the police demonstrated partiality in the inquiry regarding her grievances against the Senate President.
It will be recalled that the Federal High Court in Abuja had fixed June 27 to determine the legality or otherwise of the six-month suspension that was slammed on the defendant by the Senate.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan approached the court after she was summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee following a faceoff she had with the Senate President during plenary on February 20.
While protesting alleged arbitrary change of her seating position, she repeatedly raised a point of order to be allowed to speak, even though she had been overruled by the Senate President.
Irked by her conduct, the Senate President referred her case to the Ethics Committee.
In a television interview she granted on February 28, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that her travails in the Senate began after she rejected unwanted advances from the Senate President, Akpabio.
In an ex-parte application she brought before the court, she applied for an order to declare any action the Senate Committee took within the pendency of her suit, including her suspension, as, “null, void, and of no effect.”
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