ABUJA, Nigeria – Kogi Central Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has criticised former Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President, Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), over what she described as inappropriate public comments on her sexual harassment allegation against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Responding in a letter dated Wednesday, April 30, 2025, Akpoti-Uduaghan faulted Agbakoba for demanding a retraction and evidence supporting her December 8, 2023, allegation, insisting that his correspondence had not been formally delivered to her.
“I place it on formal record that no such letters have ever been served upon me by post, courier, or personal delivery,” she wrote.
“The imputation of recalcitrance is therefore inoperative.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan said her decision to remain silent was guided by the doctrine of lis pendens — the legal principle discouraging commentary on active litigation.
She cited two pending suits: a N250 billion defamation claim by Unoma Akpabio, wife of the Senate President, and a federal suit challenging her suspension from the Red Chamber.
While the defamation suit, CV/816/2025, stems directly from the harassment allegation, the senator noted that Akpabio’s legal team had previously invoked the sub judice rule to block Senate-level scrutiny, but was now making public demands for evidence.
“A litigant may not approbate in the courts and reprobate in the press,” she said.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan also criticised the Senate President for presiding over her six-month suspension proceedings, calling it a textbook violation of fair hearing.
“Nemo judex in causa sua — no one ought to be judge in his own cause,” she said, accusing Akpabio of being “personally invested” in the process that led to her disciplinary action.
She dismissed interpretations of her past cordial interactions with Akpabio as contradictions to her claim, stating that “civility must not be mistaken for consent.”
Responding to Agbakoba’s demand that she prove the harassment, Akpoti-Uduaghan said his approach betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of sexual harassment law.
“To do so trivialises a serious concern… especially in a workplace using a dominant position,” she said.
She added that global legal standards reject the notion that a victim’s prior politeness invalidates a claim of harassment.
She also rejected Agbakoba’s legal authority to demand evidence outside judicial proceedings.
“A private legal practitioner, however distinguished, is not vested with adjudicatory authority,” she wrote.
Akpoti-Uduaghan reiterated that her complaint remains active and legally filed, referencing her pleadings in the ongoing suit.
“This letter is issued solely to correct the public record and to prevent a constructive admission being inferred from silence,” she concluded, instructing that all future correspondence be directed to her legal counsel.
On Sunday, April 27, 2025, the senator also posted a satirical apology to Akpabio on Facebook, sarcastically expressing “deepest regret” for her “grievous crime of possessing dignity” in the Senate President’s presence — a post that has since gone viral and reignited national discourse on workplace harassment, institutional power, and gendered silencing.
