Suspended Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, and a US-based activist, Dr Sandra Duru, are locked in a public war of words over explosive claims surrounding Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Duru, also known as “Prof. Mgbeke,” alleged in a one-hour Facebook livestream that Akpoti-Uduaghan offered her N200 million to fabricate damaging claims against Akpabio.
“She told me bluntly that the sexual harassment allegation was not flying,” Duru claimed. “She needed another strategy. Then she asked me to help draft petitions to the UK parliament and the United Nations.”
Duru further alleged that Akpoti-Uduaghan promised her a ministerial position or governorship in exchange for cooperation. “She said if she gets it done, they will make her the governor of Kogi State or the minister of petroleum resources,” Duru said.
According to the activist, the senator claimed the plot was politically motivated. “She said it had nothing to do with Akpabio, that her political leaders sent her to stop the Yoruba government from going eight years,” Duru alleged.
Duru also claimed that Akpoti-Uduaghan pushed her to accuse Akpabio of organ harvesting. “She said the senator murdered a young woman called Umoren and took the girl’s kidney for his wife,” she said, adding that she asked for evidence which was never provided.
In response, Akpoti-Uduaghan denied the claims, describing the livestream as “entirely untrue and most manipulated.” In a statement through her media aide, Israel Arogbonlo, she said, “The content of the live stream, including the voice effect credited to me, is entirely untrue… and did not emanate from any contact involving me.”
She accused Duru of “playing the script of Senator Godswill Akpabio.”
Former Minister of Education, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, who was named in Duru’s claims, dismissed the broadcast. “I don’t have a response; zero response. I don’t respond to nonsense,” she said.
Also rejecting the claims was the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). “We did not collect any money from anybody or collude with anyone to defame anyone,” said Eliana Martins, FIDA’s Country Vice-President. “Let nobody be shut down. If there are weighty allegations, it is in the interest of Nigerian women and the Senate that we look into those allegations.”
Pan-Yoruba group Afenifere also weighed in, calling the allegations a plot to destabilise President Bola Tinubu’s administration. “Our nation will not bow to tribal blackmail,” it said.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, a member of the opposition PDP, was suspended from the Senate in March after a dispute over seating arrangements. She has since accused Akpabio of targeting her after she rejected alleged sexual advances in 2023.
