The Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday, June 16, 2025, declined the Federal Government’s application for a bench warrant against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who failed to appear for the arraignment in a defamation suit filed against her by the Directorate of Public Prosecutions on behalf of the Federal Government .
Justice Muhammed Umar delivered the ruling after prosecuting counsel David Kaswe informed the court that the charge had only been served on the senator’s lawyer that very morning, leaving the senator herself without prior notice of the proceedings.
Justice Umar held that, in the absence of personal service or a hearing notice to Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, it would be “unfounded and premature” to issue a bench warrant for her arrest .
Following Justice Umar’s decision, the prosecution sought, and was granted, an order for substituted service of the charge on Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan through her counsel, Mr. Johnson Usman, SAN. The court then adjourned the matter, fixing June 30, 2025, for her arraignment .
The defamation suit names President of the Senate Godswil Akpabio and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello as the nominal complainants. It alleges that, during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on April 3, 2025, the senator insinuated that the two plotted to orchestrate her assassination and frame it as a mob attack.
The charge further cites an alleged telephone conversation on March 27, 2025, in which Akpoti-Uduaghan is said to have repeated similarly damaging imputations .
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is currently suspended from the Nigerian Senate for six months by the Senate’s Ethics and Privileges Committee, has not yet entered a plea.
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