Court grants Natasha N50m bail, to begin trial Sep 23

It added that the alleged offence is punishable under section 392 of the same law.

Giving particulars of the offence in count-one of the charge, FG, told the court that the defendant committed the alleged crime on April 3, during a live broadcast on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

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Among those listed as witnesses in the matter, included the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and a former Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, who were cited as nominal complainants.

Other witnesses billed to testify in the case are two police officers that investigated the matter, Maya Iliya and Abdulhafiz Garba; a Senator, Asuquo Ekpenyong and one Sandra Duru.

The charge, dated May 16, came on the heels of a letter Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan wrote to the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, wherein she accused police of exhibiting bias in the investigation of her petitions against the Senate President.

It will be recalled that the Federal High Court in Abuja had fixed June 27 to determine the legality or otherwise of the six-month suspension that was slammed on the defendant by the Senate.

Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan approached the court after she was summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee following a faceoff she had with the Senate President during plenary on February 20.

While protesting alleged arbitrary change of her seating position, she repeatedly raised a point of order to be allowed to speak, even though she had been overruled by the Senate President.

Irked by her conduct, the Senate President referred her case to the Ethics Committee.

In a television interview she granted on February 28, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that her travails in the Senate began after she rejected unwanted advances from the Senate President, Akpabio.

In an ex-parte application she brought before the court, she applied for an order to declare any action the Senate Committee took within the pendency of her suit, including her suspension, as, “null, void, and of no effect.”