The FCT High Court in Abuja Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed the criminal defamation charges brought against Kogi Central senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, over her public comments accusing Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State Yahaya Bello of plotting to assassinate her.
This followed the notice of discontinuance the federal government filed on 12 December 2025 to terminate the case.
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Acting on the notice on Thursday, prosecution lawyer, Aderonke Imana, urged trial judge Chizoba Orji to strike out the charges.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, West Idahosa, also asked the court to dismiss the case, but pleaded for the release of all documents belonging to the defendant and her bail sureties.
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The prosecution lawyer did not oppose Mr Idahosa’s request.
The judge then dismissed the case.
He simiarly discharged the sureties who guaranteed Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s bail after she was arraigned and ordered all the documents submitted to fulfill the bail conditions to the senator.
The matter is one of the two cases the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) filed against the senator last year over her public comments accusing Mr Akpabio and Mr Bello of plotting to assassinate her.
The second case, which accused her of cyberbullying, was filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja.
PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that the AGF office had similarly filed a notice of discontinuance of the cyberbullying case at the Federal High Court.
“Take notice that the Office of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation intends to discontinue proceeding in this matter,” read the notice signed by a team of lawyers comprising the immediate past Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF), M.B. Abubakar, and Ms Imana, an Assistant Chief State Counsel at the Federal Ministry of Justice.
It is expected that the Federal High Court will soon schedule proceedings for the prosecution to also enforce the already filed notice of discontinuance. This will enable the court to officially strike out the charges.
Background
The Nigerian government, through the DPPF, filed the first case against her on 16 May 2025 at the FCT High Court in Abuja, over the her assassination plot comment.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was suspended from the Senate for six months in March 2025, was accused of making the remarks during a homecoming rally in her hometown, Ihima, Kogi State, on 1 April 2025, and in a live interview on Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, on 3 April 2025.
Mr Abubakar, the then Director of DDPF, who signed the charges, stated that the senator made the assassination “imputation” knowing or having reason to believe that it would harm the reputations of Messrs Akpabio and Bello.
The senator was charged under Section 391 of the Penal Code Law, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990, which criminalises imputations made with the intent or knowledge that they could harm a person’s reputation.
The later case filed at the Federal High Court in Abuja contained six counts, which similarly hovered over her public remarks about Messrs Akpabio and Bello allegedly attempting to assassinate her. The case accused Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan of cyberbullying and defaming the two men.
The charge quoted her as telling her audience in Ihima on 1 April 2025, “…and Akpabio told Yahaya Bello, I am saying, standing by what I have said. He told him that he should make sure that killing me does not happen in Abuja; it should be done here, so it will seem as if it is the people that killed me here…”
Another count in the case accused her of a cybercrime offence by saying during a live interview on Channel Television’s Politics Today, on 3 April, “…Seun, I am glad you did affirm that I am a lawyer, and even if lam not a lawyer, l am a sane individual, and I do stand by what I said, it was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had witn Yahaya Betlo thac night, ehm to eliminate me…”
READ ALSO: Nigerian govt withdraws cyberbullying, criminal defamation charges against Akpoti-Uduaghan
The charge also quoted her as saying that “…shortly a week after, which was the 14th, a week and a few days later when he met with him, he then emphasised that I should be killed but I should be killed in Kogi…”
The prosecutors said the remarks could harm the reputation of Messrs Akpabio and Bello.
They said she thereby committed offences in sections 24 (1)(b) and 24 (2)(c) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) (Amendment) Act, 2024 and punishable under the same sections of the Act.
Among the witnesses lined up against her were Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State; Ekpenyong Asuquo, a senator, Reno Omokri and Sandra Duru.
Both Messrs Akpabio and Bello denied the assassination plot allegation.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was recalled to the senate in September 2025 at the end of her six-month suspension, had pleaded not guilty to the charges in both cases.
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