The Federal High Court in Abuja has scheduled the hearing of a contempt suit filed by Senate President Godswill Akpabio against suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan for Tuesday, May 13.
The decision came after court proceedings on Monday, May 12, when the second and third defendants in the matter presented their submissions. Justice Binta Nyako, presiding over the case, fixed the hearing date following those arguments.
According to The Punch, the defendants informed the court that they had submitted an application which alerted the plaintiff to the alleged contempt being contested in the suit.
Tensions between Akpabio and Natasha began during a heated Senate plenary session held on February 20. What started as a dispute over seating arrangements quickly escalated into a larger confrontation. Following the incident, Natasha went on a television programme where she accused the Senate President of sexual harassment.
In addition, the embattled senator alleged that Akpabio had been trying to stifle her voice within the Senate. She claimed during the interview that her troubles at the National Assembly began because she consistently rejected the Senate President’s advances.
Since then, both politicians have remained in the spotlight, with some constituents from Natasha’s Kogi Central Senatorial District even pushing for her recall.
Amid the recall efforts, Natasha made another serious accusation. At a rally in her hometown of Ihime, Kogi Central, she alleged that Akpabio was conspiring with former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello to have her killed.
The senator further claimed that the Senate President had initially approached current Governor Ahmed Ododo to spearhead the recall campaign, but “the governor declined to do that because the masses are behind her.”
According to Natasha, dissatisfied with Ododo’s refusal, Akpabio then reached out to his predecessor, Bello. She alleged that the Senate President and the former governor were “plotting to assassinate her in their bid to silence her.”
