One of the only 8 female senators in the Nigerian senate today, a woman, Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, is challenging her suspension from the Senate. Justice Binta Nyako has set the 27th of June 2025 to give a final judgment in the case.
I believe that most of us know that this is a straightforward case that has precedents in which courts have ruled the same way, and even laymen know that Sen. Akpabio will lose. For instance, in 2017, the Federal High Court in Abuja declared the suspension of Sen. Ali Ndume “illegal, unlawful, and unconstitutional.” In 2018, the same court declared the suspension of Sen. Ovie Omo-Agege constitutionally defective. Why this senate, despite these 2 cases and several others, including that of the Court of Appeal, that described as “illegal”, the suspension of a female member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, went ahead and suspended Natasha, beats my imagination.
Again, despite all these, just before Justice Binta descended on this senate, Sen. Akpabio and former governor Yahya Bello reminded me of what I was taught in the law class. I have learnt through my law teachers and at a young age, that democracies die at the hands of military generals with guns, who overthrow elected governments, subvert the will of the people and perpetuate themselves in power. This was what President Bola Tinubu fought against. But never in my mind have I ever imagined that elected leaders—presidents and lawmakers- would subvert the very process that brought them to power.
This is what is happening here today. Because they knew that Justice Binta Nyako has set the 27th of June, 2025 to give a final judgment in the case of suspension of Sen. Natasha, which she will win, the federal government quickly filed a three-count criminal charge against S. Natasha for allegedly defaming Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello.
It was said in the criminal charge filed in the Federal High Court, Abuja, against Sen. Natasha some 3 days ago, that she had publicly alleged that Sen. Akpabio was involved in organ harvesting and that he and Yahya Bello had plotted to assassinate her in Kogi State.
For God’s sake, what is this? Why are we like this? Why should the federal government of Nigeria file a criminal case against Sen. Natasha on the allegation of defamation of the character of Sen. Akpabio and Yahya Bello? Are we not trivialising governance?
What has the federal government of Nigeria got to do with this statement allegedly made by Sen. Natasha against Sen. Akpabio and Yahya Bello? Are Sen. Akpabio and Yahya Bello small children who are not old enough to go to court themselves and defend their good character, if they have any?
Ok, assuming but not conceding that Sen. Akpabio, being the number three man as senate president, is part of this government and that government can go to court in defence of his character, which I doubt, what of Yahya Bello? Is he also part of the government while he is on N500,000,0000/ bail?
I can’t believe that the federal government led by our president, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former senator, a pro-democracy activist who fled the country to live long enough to fight for us another day, would allow this to be visited on an ordinary woman under his watch.
Unfortunately, in the charge against Sen. Natasha, her accusers (Sen. Akpabio and Gov. Yahya Bello) would stand as witnesses for the prosecution. ‘I laugh plenty’ as one of my cousins usually says. Akpabio and Yahya Bello as witnesses? Witnesses to the federal government? Haba!
When I read this in the press, I prayed that President Tinubu would steer clear of the case and say so publicly. As it may, if he allows it to go on, tarnish his good image in the international community.
I am not unaware that S. 174 of the Constitution has empowered the Attorney General to institute criminal proceedings in the name of the Federal Government. But was it the federal government of Nigeria that was allegedly defamed by Sen. Natasha? When did Sen. Akpabio and Yahya Bello become the federal government of Nigeria for the Attorney General of the Federation to file a criminal defamation case against a tortfeasor when both Akpabio and Yahya can do so themselves?
Is the Attorney General of the Federation a frivolous person? He is not. Is his revered office redundant? No. It is not.
I am also not unaware that in Nigeria, regrettably, liability in defamation may be civil or criminal. I am also not unaware that it is S. 391 of the Penal Code that created the offence of criminal defamation and that S. 392 of the Code imposes penalties punishable for up to one year or 2 years imprisonment for the offense. However, I am also aware that we still have some
USELESS COLONIAL LAWS in our statute books that should have long been discarded. S. 391 and 392 are, to me, part of those useless laws that not only outlived their usefulness but are no longer required or desirable.
I remember when WANDERING was an offense in Nigeria. A colonial hangover law that the colonial masters used to prevent black people from going into the GRAs where whites exclusively live, but which unfortunately, our leaders, even after independence (as new occupants of the GRAs in various states capitals including my elder brother Hamma Ibada), continued to retain in our statute books.
It was not until 1989 that WANDERING ceased to be an offense in Nigeria, having been abolished by the Minor Offences (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1989. Since no police man is empowered to detain anybody for WANDERING. It is no longer an offense in Nigeria.
Like ‘Criminal Defamation’ now being leveraged on by Sen. Akpabio, ‘Criminal Libel’ existed in the United Kingdom to criminalise criticism of the Monarch and was used to silence political dissent. The law fell out of use in the twentieth century and was finally abolished in the UK in 2009 by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
Like the former offense of WANDERING, ‘Criminal Defamation’ that Akpabio wants to leverage on in his fight with Natasha, it is a useless colonial law imposed on us by the British to prevent black nationalists or freedom fighters from criticising the British colonial administration. Now, Sen. Akpabio has replaced the colonial masters. He is a monarch. Like some of us who replaced the British colonialists in the GRA, as a monarch, Akpabio asks that the government should prosecute Natasha for criticising him.
I have tremendous respect for Mr. Lateef Fagbemi. I like his legal practice. I am sure he will drop this case against Natasha. It is based on a useless law.
Let me also use this opportunity to call on our judiciary to use this opportunity to declare S. 391 of the Penal Code and its comparable provision in the Criminal Codes in all states of the federation unconstitutional.
Defamation should be solely a civil matter in Nigeria, as it is in England and Wales. It cannot be used here to silence political dissent. It has no place in democracy. Sen. Akpabio and Yahya Bello should go to court on their own. President Tinubu should not let these two further dent his international image. In saner climes, people who have character go to court to defend it when they are defamed. They do not use the government.
