…bring your evidence to court, not social media – Senate President’s Aide
By Ime Silas and Rukiyet Rauf
The last certainly, has been heard on the face off between the President of the 10th Senate, His Excellency, Distinguished Sen Godswill Akpabio, GCON and Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Sen Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan over alleged sexual harassment.
This is just as the Special Assistant to the Senate President on Media, Mr. Jackson Udom, has asked the Kogi Central Senator to bring evidence of her claims of sexual harassment to a court of competent jurisdiction for adjudication, rather than seeking social media applause.
Mr Udom, while reacting to Natasha’s claim that the Senate President “just filled” a multi-billion Naira defamation suit against her, described it as misleading and intended to distort the public’s understanding of the case.
“On 5 December 2025, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan again resorted to social media to claim incorrectly and misleadingly that His Excellency, the President of the Senate, Distinguished Senator Godswill Akpabio, had only just filed a multi-billion-naira defamation suit against her over her unfounded allegations of sexual misconduct”, Akpabio’s Aide noted in a statement made available to the media.
Insisting that Sen Natasha had no evidence to back her claims, Mr. Udom clarified that the Senate President’s move to seek redress was in exercise of his fundamental rights aimed at protecting his reputation.
According to Udom, “These allegations, as the public is well aware, have never been supported by a single shred of evidence before the Senate Committee or before any competent authority.
For the avoidance of doubt, the facts are clear, verifiable, and already before the court.
‘Following Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s grave and unsubstantiated accusations capable of inflicting severe reputational damage, Senator Akpabio exercised his constitutional right to seek legal redress. The suit was filed over three months ago. Its progress was temporarily delayed by routine administrative processes and the normal judicial procedures.
“Upon the resumption of judicial activities on the file, several attempts were made by the court’s bailiff to personally serve Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan with the originating processes. Each attempt failed due to her deliberate evasion of service, as deposed to under oath in the bailiff’s affidavit now before the court. Only after these repeated evasions did the court, in November this year granted the application for substituted service.
Her claim that the matter was “just filed” is therefore false, misleading, and intended to distort public understanding of the case”.
Udom reminded Natasha that no online applause could replace evidence, judicial procedure or scrutiny.
“We reiterate that legal disputes are resolved in courtrooms, not through orchestrated narratives and staged outrage on social-media platforms. The online applause Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan habitually seeks cannot replace credible evidence, legal procedure, or judicial scrutiny.
This behaviour is consistent with her pattern during her six-month Senate suspension, an entirely lawful disciplinary measure she sought to delegitimize through digital agitation, only to ultimately serve the suspension in full.
“It is time for Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to present the “evidence” she claims to possess before a court of competent jurisdiction, rather than relying on sensationalized commentary designed solely to attract sympathy and obscure the facts.
The law is guided by proof, procedure, and due process, not sentiment, not emotion, and certainly not social-media theatrics. She is advised to properly instruct her lawyers, file her defence, and finally provide the evidence she purports to have for the baseless allegations she has peddled over this matter.
This is that her golden opportunity. The public, the media, and the legal community now await her defence to the defamatory claims of the plaintiff”, Akpabio’s Aide concluded.
Recall that Senator Natasha after being served with court summon, had issued a statement published on her handles, 
in which she boasted that the suit by the Senate President would afford her the opportunity to prove how she was sexually harassed.
She accused the Senate Committee on Ethics of failure to grant her audience to proof her case.
Natasha claimed “Today being the 5th day of December, 2025, I’m in receipt of the newly instituted 200 billion naira suit against me by Senator Godswill Akpabio claiming defamation on sexual harassment.
Now, I am glad that Sen. Akpabio has brought this up because the Senate Committee on Ethics and Privileges failed to grant me audience in this issue relying on the fact that Godswill Akpabio’s wife had instituted a defamatory case against me. Therefore they couldn’t attend to a matter already in court.
Albeit, I couldn’t proceed to court because by senate rules, I must still present my case before the Ethics committee (same committee that recommended my illegal suspension).
Alas, I now have a chance to prove how I was sexually harassed and how my refusal to give into his demands unleashed series of unprovoked and unprecedented attacks on my person. See you in court Godswill Akpabio”.
It could be recalled that the Kogi Central Senator was earlier this year, suspended from the Senate over what the upper Chamber of the national assembly described as an unruly behavior following her complaint of alleged sexual harassment against the Senate President, Akpabio.
