By our reporter
Barely hours after threatening to sue Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for levelling accusations of sexual advances against her husband, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, his wife, Unoma, has made good her threat.
Mrs Akpabio has filed several suits before the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court seeking,among others, claims to the tune of N350 billion for aggravated damages.
Alleging a breach of fundamental rights and defamation, Akpabio’s wife said the suits are a fallout of statements made by Sen. Natasha (Kogi Central) on Friday, February 28, during an interview on Arise TV.
She claimed that by Natasha’s statements, she and her children have become objects of opprobrium even as their lives have been endangered.
Mrs Akpabio also sought a perpetual injunction restraining the female senator from making those statements any further just as the Senate President’s wife prayed the court to cause Sen. Natasha to retract those allegations and unconditionally apologize to her in two listed national dailies.
One of the suits, marked No: CV/814/25), was brought under Section 34(1)(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Article 4 & 5 of The African Charter on Human And Peoples Rights (Ratification And Enforcement Act) Cap. A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
In the suits, she prayed the court to make:
°A DECLARATION that the allegations made by the Respondent (Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan) on the floor of the Senate on the 20th of February 2025 and subsequent scandalous and salacious allegations on Arise News TV by the Respondent, constitute a flagrant violation of the fundamental rights of the Applicant guaranteed under Section 34(1) (A) of The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended), Article 4 & 5 of The African Charter on Human And Peoples Rights (Ratification And Enforcement Act) Cap. A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, and Section 14 of the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015;
°AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Respondent from making further inciteful, scandalous, and spiteful statements that have caused the Applicant and her children emotional and psychological abuse and living under constant threat and fear of their lives;
°AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Respondent, whether by themselves, their agents, privies, or whosoever from further inciteful, scandalous, and spiteful statements that have caused the Applicant and her children emotional and psychological abuse and living under constant threat and fear of their lives or in any other manner infringing on their fundamental rights;
°AN ORDER awarding the sum of N250,000,000,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Billion Naira only) as exemplary, punitive, aggravated and general damages against the Respondent for her infringement of the fundamental rights of the Applicant alongside such further or other Orders as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.
Through a separate defamation lawsuit, marked Suit No: CV/816/25), Unoma Akpabio sought:
°A DECLARATION that the Defendant’s act of claiming on national television, that the Claimant’s husband, who is the President of the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made sexual advances at her, without any proof of same, has damaged the reputation of the Claimant and indeed her entire family, bringing them into disrepute and opprobrium;
°AN ORDER OF THIS HONOURABLE COURT mandating the Defendant to issue a formal written retraction of the defamatory words and tender an unconditional apology to the Claimant and her family, to be published in 2 (two) nationally-read newspapers to wit: The Guardian and This Day Newspapers;
°AN ORDER OF THIS HONOURABLE COURT compelling the Defendant to pay to the Claimant the sum of ₦1,000,000,000.00 (One Billion Naira only) as punitive and exemplary damages for the ruinous effect of the Defendant’s defamatory words on the Claimant’s family’s reputation;
°AN ORDER OF PERPETUAL INJUNCTION restraining the Defendant from further uttering any defamatory words or causing to be uttered or spread, any defamatory words against the reputation of the Claimant’s family.
No date has as yet been fixed for hearing the suits.
It appears to be a season of court cases between both parties as Sen. Natasha had earlier sued Sen. Akpabio too.
