•Unoma Akpabio and Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan
The wife of Senate President, Mrs. Unoma Godswill Akpabio, has filed multiple lawsuits at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan claiming N350billion in damages.
In the suits, Unoma alleged the breach of her fundamental rights and defamation stemming from statements made by the senator during a televised interview on Arise News.
She said the Suit No: CV/814/25, was brought pursuant to 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, reports The Nation.
Akpabio’s wife prayed the court for a declaration that the allegations made by Natasha 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 her husband 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.
She also sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining Natasha 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.”
The suit reads in part: “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 billion 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.”
Additionally, in a separate defamation lawsuit with No: CV/816/25), Mrs. 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 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 compelling the Defendant to pay to the Claimant the sum of ₦1billion 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.
“Any further or ancillary order or other Orders as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.”
