The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to withdraw its criminal defamation case against the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Akpoti-Uduaghan is currently facing charges at the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja, for allegedly making defamatory statements against Senate President Godswill Akpabio during a live television broadcast.
She was suspended from the Senate in March for six months over allegations of breaching Senate rules.
The senator also accused Akpabio and the former governor of Kogi State Yahaya Bello of plotting to assassinate her, claims that have further fueled tensions between her and the Senate leadership.
The standoff intensified on Thursday when the Federal Government arraigned her in court.
Reacting to the development, SERAP described the charges as a gross miscarriage of justice and a direct attack on freedom of expression.
The group emphasized that no citizen should be prosecuted merely for peacefully exercising their fundamental rights.
In a statement released on Thursday, SERAP urged the authorities to immediately drop what it called “bogus criminal defamation charges” against Akpoti-Uduaghan.
“Authorities must immediately drop the bogus criminal defamation charges against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and stop targeting citizens simply for the peaceful exercise of their human rights,” the statement read in part.
Citing the Nigerian Constitution, SERAP argued that criminal defamation laws violate both domestic and international legal obligations.
“Criminal defamation laws and lawsuits are inconsistent and incompatible with Section 39 of the Nigerian Constitution (1999, as amended), as well as the country’s international obligations to protect freedom of expression—particularly under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nigeria is a state party, ” it added.
SERAP further called on the National Assembly to urgently repeal criminal defamation laws in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the court granted Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan bail in the sum of ₦50 million, with one surety.
The surety must be a person of reputable integrity, residing in the Federal Capital Territory, and must own a landed property within Abuja Municipal Area Council.
