A move by the Federal Government to have Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan arrested failed on Monday.
The government has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to issue an arrest warrant against the suspended senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, but the court declined the request.
NATIONAL POST reports that the government’s request was based on the Senator’s alleged failure to appear in court for arraignment in a defamation suit.
Speaking on the development, Natasha said she was never served a notice of arraignment.
She said in a post on her social media page that she got to know about the two cases through social media.
The Senator wrote: “Pursuant to petitions from Senator Godswill Akpabio and Ex Governor Yahaya Bello, the Federal Government of Nigeria has filed two separate charges against me:
“Case 1: CHARGE NO:FCT/CR/297/2025 BETWEEN FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA vs Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory coming up on the 19th June 2025 for arraignment.
“Case 2: CHARGE NO:FHC/ABJ/CR/195/2025 BETWEEN FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA vs Senator Natasha Akpoti- Uduaghan in the Federal High Court coming up on 30th June 2025 for arraignment.
“Without being served with the charge, but upon reading on social media of the pendency of the case, I sent my Lawyer J.J Usman , SAN to court to receive the charge on my behalf so we can appear in Court.
“Today, My Counsel was served at 9:18am paving way for my appearance on the next date. Suddenly, the Prosecuting Counsel thereafter applied for bench warrant against me, which my Counsel stiffly opposed.
“Gratefully, the court rejected the bench warrant for my arrest as I was made aware of the 2nd case only today having received service at 9:18am this morning.!
She added that as a law abiding citizen, she would be in court for arraignment on the 19th of June 2025 at 11am before the FCT High Court and also on the 30th of June 2025 for the second arraignment accordingly.