The immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over alleged defamatory statements made against him by the suspended senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The former governor said that the utterances made against him by senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan were not only false, reckless and inciting, but “they constitute serious criminal defamation, false accusation and incitement to public disorder, all of which are offences under the Nigerian law.”
In the petition, written and signed by his solicitor, N.A. ABUBAKAR, to Nigeria’s number one police on Wednesday, ex governor Bello called on the Nigeria Police Force under IGP’s leadership to invite Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to substantiate her allegation against him with credible evidence.
According to Yahaya Bello, if senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan fails to do so, she risks being arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the provisions of the law for criminal defamation, inciting public disturbance and spreading false information injurious to public peace,” the lawyer wrote.
The former governor has also written to Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, through his Counsels, Chief R.O. Balogun, SAN and Co, demanding retraction and public apology over defamatory statements made against him in two national dailies, or face legal consequences.
The petition reads:
“Our Client’s attention has been drawn to a most disturbing, damaging and criminally defamatory statement made by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, during her public address at a political event tagged ‘Homecoming Rally’ held on Tuesday, April 1, 2025, in Okehi LGA of Kogi State. That while addressing attendees at the rally, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan falsely and maliciously uttered the following words in reference to our client: ‘Senate President Godswill Akpabio sent for Yahaya Bello. And it was actually Senator Asuquo from Cross River that drove Yahaya Bello from Hilton Hotel.
I was informed of everything and what I got to know of the meeting was in two folds. He told him to commence my recall and that he was going to fund it – of course, monies changed hands that night.
The petition also reads:
“The second thing he told him was that he should try and kill me. I didn’t make this public, but I wrote to the IG of Police. Akpabio told Yahaya Bello. He told him that he should make sure that killing me does not happen in Abuja, that it should be done here, so it would seem as if it’s the people that killed me here …’
Ex governor yahaya Bello’s solicitor, N.A. ABUBAKAR, noted in the petition to the IGP:
“That these utterances are not only false, reckless and inciting, but they constitute serious criminal defamation, false accusation and incitement to public disorder, all of which are offences under Nigerian law,”
Bello’s lawyer, Abubakar, said Section 24(1)(b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc.) Act, 2015, penalises a person who knowingly or intentionally sends false messages or information through a computer or network likely to cause harm to the reputation of another person.
He added that, in senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s case, she caused videos of her above statement to be widely circulated online where it has continued to trend till date with the clear intention of causing harm to the reputation of the former governor against Sections 114 and 140 of the Penal Code (applicable in Northern Nigeria) – which criminalises giving false information with intent to mislead public officers or the public.
Abubakar also said that by accusing our client of plotting an assassination and naming him as a co-conspirator in a purported murder plot (with an attempt to disguise the killing as mob or ethnic violence), Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan has:
“Gravely damaged our client’s reputation by portraying him as a violent and vengeful political actor and misled the public and tried to incite ethnic and political distrust, especially among clans of Ebiraland in particular and the people of Kogi Central in general.
MUST READ: Kogi Govt Accuses Senator Natasha of Misleading Public to Incite Unrest
“Brought his name into disrepute on the basis of an allegation so weighty that, if left unchallenged, could harm his political career and personal safety; and abused her parliamentary status and platform by propagating such falsehoods without evidence, in a very public and politically charged setting,”
He therefore urged the IGP to expedite action on the petition, stating that “failure to act in the circumstances of these egregious offences by Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan will embolden others to also weaponise political platforms for dangerous falsehoods and criminal misrepresentation, especially with an eye to gaining dishonest advantage over opponents, thus endangering our democracy.”
(Editor : Ena Agbanoma)
