A High Court in Kogi State has ordered Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to pay ₦1 billion in damages to former governor Yahaya Bello after finding her liable for defamation.
The judgment followed a lawsuit filed by Bello over comments the senator made during a November 4, 2022 appearance on The Morning Show aired by Arise TV. In that interview, she allegedly referred to the former governor with terms the court later ruled were injurious to his reputation.
In its decision on suit number HCL/16/2023, the court held that Bello successfully established his claims and that the statements made during the broadcast were defamatory. The judge ruled that the remarks, which described Bello in highly damaging terms, could not be justified and amounted to an attack on his character.
Beyond the monetary award, the court issued a perpetual injunction barring Akpoti-Uduaghan, as well as anyone acting on her behalf, from making similar statements about Bello across any media platform in the future.
The matter, instituted in 2023, had earlier faced a challenge from the defence, which argued that the case duplicated proceedings elsewhere and constituted an abuse of court process. However, Bello’s legal team maintained that the related case before a Federal Capital Territory court did not involve him directly.
The High Court upheld its authority to hear the case, a position later affirmed by the Court of Appeal, which dismissed the senator’s appeal and confirmed that the trial court acted within its jurisdiction.
With the ruling, the court brought to a close a legal battle that stemmed from remarks made during a televised programme and reinforced the legal consequences of defamatory statements in public discourse.
