The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT,
sitting at Maitama, has granted bail to the suspended Senator for Kogi Central,
Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, to the tune of N50million.
The court, in a ruling that was delivered by Justice Chizoba
Orji, rejected application the Federal Government made for the defendant who
was arraigned on a three-count charge, to be remanded in prison custody pending
the determination 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.
It specifically accused her of making “imputation, knowing
or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of a
person.”
According to the charge, by making such false imputation
that tarnished the image of others, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, committed an
offence under 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 charge, dated May 16, came on the heels of a letter
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan wrote to the Attorney- General of the Federation and
Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, wherein she accused police of
exhibiting bias in the investigation of her petitions 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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