Court rejects FG’s application to remand Senator Natasha Akpoti, grants her N50m bail in defamation suit

Justice Chizoba Orji of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, has granted N50 million bail to the suspended Senator for Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

In a ruling delivered today June 19, the presiding judge held that she found no reason to deny the defendant bail, saying there was sufficient evidence that she is willing to face her trial.

Consequently, the court held that the defendant must produce one surety who must be a person of integrity and owns a landed property in Abuja.

The court based its decision on section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, as well as section 163 and 165 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.

The case was subsequently adjourned till September 23 for trial.

The court also rejected an application for the lawmaker to be remanded in prison custody pending the determination of the case against her.

The Federal government is prosecuting the lawmaker for allegedly making a false claim that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and a former Governor of Kogi state, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, were behind a plot to assassinate her.