The wife of the Senate President of Nigeria, Mrs. Unoma Godswill Akpabio, has filed multiple lawsuits at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. The suits allege a breach of fundamental rights and defamation stemming from statements made by the senator on the Senate floor and during a televised interview on Arise News.
In the fundamental rights suit (Suit No: CV/814/25), 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, Mrs. Akpabio seeks:
A DECLARATIONthat the allegations made by the Respondent on the floor of the Senate on the 20th of February 2025 and subsequent scandalous and salacious allegations 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 INJUNCTIONrestraining 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 INJUNCTIONrestraining the Respondent, whether by themselves, their agents, privies, or howsoever 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 ORDERawarding 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.
Additionally, in a separate defamation lawsuit (Suit No: CV/816/25), Mrs. Akpabio seeks:
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 COURTmandating 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.
ANY FURTHER OR ANCILLARY ORDER or other Orders as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.
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