News
Legal twist in court, as Akpabio moves to convict Natasha over alleged contempt
Legal fireworks continued on Monday before Justice Binta Murtala Nyako, in the matter between Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Godswill Akpabio, Senate President, over the former’s suspension from the Senate.
But proceedings had to be halted in the main case as the court adjouned to first hear the contempt proceedings brought against the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, at the National Assembly, by Akpabio’s lawyers, for Tuesday, May 13.
At the resumption of the matter on Monday, the lawyers defending the Senate President informed the court that they had filed an application highlighting the Akpoti-Uduaghan’s alleged contempt, contradicting a gag order from the court for parties to refrain from speaking about the case in the media.
The female Senator, one of the four in the Senate of the 10th NASS, had been suspended by the Senate on March 6 for unruly behaviour based on her confrontation of Akpabio on the floor of the assembly, during plenary on February 20 on the recommendation of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, had rushed to court to obtain an injunction restraining the Senate from investigating her, but regardless of the order obtained ex-parte on March 4, the Senate still moved against her, not only clamping the suspension order, but followed with a swathe of other measures, including stoppage of her salaries.
But a new twist which was raised on Monday was in regards of the courts order on April 4, 2025, where Nyako restrained all the parties, including the Clerk of the National Assembly, the Senate, and Nada Imasuen, Chairman of the committee that investigated the matter, who were all joined in the suit, not to grant media interviews or make social media posts related to the case.
At the resumed sitting on Monday, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s legal team, led by Jibrin Okutekpa, had made to proceed, telling the court that the matter was fixed for hearing and that all required documents had been filed.
But Charles Yoila, Paul Daudu, Ekoh Ejembi (SAN) and Valentine Offia lawyers for the four defence parties who affirmed their compliance with the court’s prior directives and expressed readiness to proceed with the hearing, raised the issue of contempt.
Daudu told the court that despite the order against social media posts, the plaintiff had published a satirical post on her Facebook page, stating: “This matter is coming up for definite hearing. The second defendant has filed its schedule of hearing. Ordinarily, we are ready to proceed, but a further affidavit was served on me just on Friday, which I am entitled to respond to.
“This court ordered that there should be no social media posts, but there was one. The plaintiff herself posted a satirical apology on her Facebook page. The post mocked the court and violated its order, asking it to hold her in contempt.
Ejembi, while echoing the submission, added: “We are alleging that the Facebook post made by the plaintiff is a mockery of the court’s proceedings. We tender a Punch newspaper report showing she made the post despite the court’s order.”
But, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyers, countered, saying, Facebook post was related to the sexual harassment allegation and not the issue before the court, urged the court to disregard the defendants’ submissions and proceed with hearing the substantive matter.
Okutekpa, however failed to get the court to fast-track the hearing, reminding it that the female Senator had spent 68 cumulative days out of the National Assembly, as Nyako insisted that the contempt issue must be addressed first.
“I cannot proceed with this matter until I conclude on the issue of contempt. If there is contempt, I have to hear and determine it first,” the judge said, urging Akpoti-Uduaghan’s who also raised a contempt allegation against all the defendants to also bring them for hearing.
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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