• Constituents, ex-neighbours speak on embattled Kogi Central Senator’s past
• Cause of collapsed marriage to ex-husbands Oseni Salihu, Saka Babamba shrouded in mystery
• I quit her campaign train out of frustration, says former spokesman
Not a few political observers are wondering the magic by which an in-chamber disagreement over rearrangement of seats in the Senate has snowballed into a recall process against Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan and salacious tales of sexual harassment she has been reeling out against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio. Now, the perception in the international community now is that of a gang-up to deny a woman justice for daring to speak out.
It all began with a protest by the Kogi Central Senator against what she termed a breach of her privilege in not being informed before her seat was changed. She claimed that the incident was part of a grand plot to frustrate her legislative duties and deny the people of her constituency effective representation. To ventilate her anger, she appeared on a radio station in Abuja moments later and followed that up with an appearance on a television station where she accused the Senate President of making sexual advances to her. Akpabio promptly denied the allegation while his Wife, Nnoma, took a step further by lodging a defamation suit against Natasha at the Federal High Court.
Apparently irked by Natasha’s actions, the Senate revisited the events of February 20 and the fuss Natasha made of the seats rearrangement at the upper chamber of the National Assembly and sent her on six-month suspension. Natasha, alleging injustice and lack of fair hearing, took it upon herself to internationalise the matter by allegedly ‘sneaking’ into a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in New York to lodge her sexual harassment complaint against Akpabio.
The Senate, however, regarded her presence at the IPU meeting as a breach of protocol. The Chairman, Senate Committee on Inter-Parliamentary Affairs, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, who spoke on the matter in a statement, said Akpoti-Uduaghan breached protocol by attending and speaking at the IPU session without due authorization by the National Assembly. He said Akpoti-Uduagahan’s move was baseless because she is not a member of the IPU.
Ibrahim said: “A petition can only be lodged against another member state by a member state. This implies that the IPU cannot consider petitions from individuals who are not members. The suspended Senator Natasha is not a member of the IPU, but Nigeria is.
“Additionally, the suspended Senator cannot represent the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I served as the interim president of the IPU in Geneva in 2023, and I am familiar with how the IPU operates after presiding over its proceedings.
“Furthermore, as Chairman of the Inter-Parliamentary Committee in the Nigerian Senate, I did not approve or authorise the suspended Senator Natasha to attend the IPU on behalf of Nigeria to the Senate President.”
While the dust raised by the IPU fiasco was yet to settle, Natasha alleged plans by the Senate to arrest her upon arrival in Nigeria. But the veracity of her claim remains yet a matter of conjecture, and she has made past time of telling her story in international media outlets like Sky News and British Television Network where she dramatically shared her allegation against Akpabio amid sobs, sensationally wiping tears from her cheeks.
As events unfolded, information emerged to the effect that Natasha’s constituents had had enough of the unending drama and resolved to collect voters’ signatures from her constituency with a view to recalling her from the Senate. Some dismissed it as wishful thinking, others said what she needed at that material time was empathy, support and not recall.
Notwithstanding, the conspiracy theories that surrounded the exercise, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) publicly acknowledged receipt of over 250,000 signatures from Natasha’s constituents and notified her of the quest by her constituents to recall her. Natasha, through her lawyer, Victor Giwa, accused the electoral umpire of partisanship and bias for accepting and agreeing to act on a petition it earlier claimed to be defective.
In a letter to INEC through her counsel, Giwa, Natasha said: “Your position as disclosed in your press release on March 25, 2025, signed by Sam Olumekun, shows that the Commission has taken sides and has become partial in favour of the petitioners in this case.
“The Commission has observed that the Petitioners’ Petition did not meet the threshold of the requirement of a Petition to recall a member, having not contained the required contact addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses in their covering letter forwarding the Petition as contained in Clause 1(f) of INEC Regulation and Guideline.
“The proper thing and step to have been taken is to declare the Petition as “incompetent” and subsequently disregard same.”
An investigation conducted by the correspondent revealed a sharp division among her supporters both within and outside her constituency. While she had enjoyed massive solidarity and support from her constituents before now, majority of them appear to have shifted base and appear to have found new reasons to say enough is enough as a result of the fallout from her faceoff with the Senate.
One question that kept popping up from sources for or against Natasha contacted by the correspondent was “are you for us or against us?” But I told those who cared to listen that I am for everybody and for nobody (apologies to ex-President Muhammadu Buhari). As a reporter, I was doing my job in the public interest and for the information and education of those who are genuinely seeking knowledge to enable them to get a handle on the Natasha phenomenon and the current happenings around her.
Who is Natasha?
Investigation revealed that apart from close siblings who have all migrated to other geographical locations, Natasha was relatively unknown in her Kogi Central Senatorial District as a child until she came back in year 2000 to pursue philanthropic empowerment projects before she finally veered into full scale partisan politics.
Mrs. Fati Amodu, a retired school teacher said: “As a child growing up, apart from academic dexterity already publicly acknowledged in testimonials from her early years of schooling, she was scarcely known beyond her immediate abode at any particular point in time.
“Yes, her father, Jimoh Akpoti, was well known and respected, but not same for Natasha who was then a child. Even till date, an average 18 or 19-year-old person is hardly popular except in the circle of friends, playmates and classmates, unless they were into vices injurious to society, for which she has never been associated.”
To those who are her core supporters, Akpoti-Uduaghan may take wrong steps but she does no evil. They see her first through the prism of her father, the late Dr. Jimoh Abdul Akpoti, who was reputed for using his profession (medical practice) and resources to serve the people while he was alive. They also see her as a role model on how to conquer adversity and get to the top in life. They see her as an inspiration and a philanthropist in her own right who is genuinely out to fill the void created by lack of exposure, empowerment and education for the majority in the society.
They see her aspiration, journey and progress as those of the entire women folk in Kogi State in particular and Nigeria in general, and one who is leading them to overcome the many cultural, political and social encumbrances on the way of women, which prevent them from confronting authorities and speaking truth to power. But her opponents see her as over-ambitious. They accuse her of lacking in finesse and local sense to handle issues maturely, be they existential issues or those that concern her private life.
Often, they view her marital travails as part of the challenges faced by most women in the country.
“Yes, people are saying she has been in and out of two marriages, what is wrong with that? This is not in any way peculiar to her. People marry and divorce in this country almost on a daily basis.
“That she has two former husbands should not be the yardstick to judge her. What is important is that she was able to rise from her adversities and today she is making a difference in the country and internationally,” said Mrs. Amodu.
Also responding to a question, Mr. Ganiyu Aliyu, a constituent, said: “I know that as a young girl she was married to a cousin of the popular Bishop Haruna Yakubu of the Anglican Church in Okene. His name is Oseni Saliu from the Wokili family.
“After the unfortunate divorce, which was blamed on alleged abuse on the part of her former husband, she again found love and married one Mr Saka Babamba. Some call him Zakari. He is from the Oziomoye Clan.
“The circumstances that led to their divorce are not in public domain, because at that period, she had not attained the fame she has presently. But it is widely believed to have been a mutual decision by the then couple to go their separate ways for reasons best known to them.
“There are claims that Saka is presently into real estate business in Abuja, but I don’t know how true that information is. As for the first husband, I don’t have information concerning his whereabouts.
“We are happy that today, Natasha has shown the way to our young girls that despite their conditions, they can rise to become persons of repute within the community and beyond through education like she has done.
“I want to say that it is highly unfortunate that some persons within the constituency have chosen this her time of trials and suspension from the Senate to initiate her recall from the Senate. That is human beings for you.
“We quickly forget the past, good or bad. My prayer is that they will fail.
“Natasha, I can say, is the best Senator that has represented the district in recent past and getting the people to vote her out would not be easy.
“We are praying for her.”
Speaking to our correspondent in Okene, a businessman, Mr. Ojo Jimoh, said her two failed marriages were not her fault. He said her present marriage to High Chief Emmanuel Oritsejolomi Uduaghan epitomises her resilience and the plight of the average woman in Nigeria who is supposed to be seen and not heard. He sees a sort of emancipation of womanhood in her journey and through her the people either dream better for themselves or vow to ensure their female wards would one day rise to the top from obscurity like Natasha.
“We are happy that she has found a man who loves her, and today, they are living happily together,” Jimoh said.
However, a visit to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s family house in Obeiba-Ihima directly opposite the road to Igwehi and deposed Obobanyin of Ihima’s Compound in Okehi Local Government Area, showed people going about their regular routines apparently oblivious of the fate that may likely befall their daughter and sister through the recall process now being considered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The modern bungalow painted with cream or off-white paint with brown roofing sheets has no fence around it. According to a close family member who did not want his name in print, “Our daughter has tried. If at this time they want to remove her, let her come back home. God knows everything and our people know she has been good to them.
“Natasha may have had issues with even family members and leaders in the state, but such is the nature of a true leader and reformer. We are a family. We are proud of her.”
It was also discovered that from the talks about Natasha’s achievements and occasional heroics in street corners, the conversation has shifted to both the social and traditional media with those for and against her expressing their opinions freely.
One of her constituents, Mr. Victor Daniel, in a post on Facebook on March 7, 2025, said: “I’m deeply sentimental about Natasha. She’s not just my Senator – she’s from my village, and we come from the same clan.”
According to Daniel, “a lot of you are just hearing about her, but people who come from where I come from have known Natasha since she was a child. If you grew up in Ihima, you knew Dr. Akpoti.
“Women in Ihima talk about Natasha like they all watched her grow up. There’s a familiar fondness in their voices when they talk about her, as if they’re speaking about a neighbour’s child.
“But people take one look at her – biracial, refined – and assume she’s some spoiled rich girl who floated into power on privilege. That couldn’t be more wrong.
“It’s not in my place to narrate her struggles with poverty and lack, but I can damn well talk about her war with political authority.”
Daniel revealed that he started hearing about Natasha when she took on the Kogi State Government over Ajaokuta Steel in 2015.
“Who was she? ‘Doctor Akpoti’s daughter,’ they said. Since 2015, she has locked horns with Yahaya Bello – without holding any political office. As a private citizen, she took on the state government, even up to the federal level, fighting for causes she believed in.
“When she finally ran for office and was rigged out, our grandmothers took to the streets in protest. She ran again, and again, and again. The last time, she was rigged out yet again – until the election tribunal ruled in her favour.
“Remember the story from the last elections where Yahaya Bello allegedly had a ditch dug to block election materials from reaching a certain candidate’s hometown? That candidate was Natasha.”
He further claimed that the six months suspension of Natasha from the Senate was meant to punish her for daring to accuse the Senate President of sexual harassment.
He said: “Now to the matter at hand: every Nigerian understands the injustice of leadership – until it happens to someone they don’t like. How dare she accuse the Senate President of sexual harassment?
“This is not about whether her allegations are right or wrong. Everything that has happened to Natasha was orchestrated to punish her for daring to accuse him in the first place.
“A sitting Senator was not only denied fair hearing – her colleagues openly celebrated her downfall. Some even bragged that she would never return to the Senate. Then, within 24 hours of the hearing, they suspended her for six months without pay.
“The message was clear: punish the petitioner, make an example of her, warn other women – regardless of status – against ever accusing powerful men of harassment.
“It doesn’t even matter whether Natasha’s allegations are true. The way they handled it was a disgrace, even by Nigeria’s rotten standards. Senators went on TV saying women should undergo mental evaluations before contesting for office – because Natasha accused Akpabio.
“The accused not only remained the senate president but presided over the decision to suspend his accuser. And even regular people want a ‘perfect’ victim. ‘She has six children with six different men.’
“Lol. She’s the ‘pretty, biracial, articulate, woman in the Senate’ whose private life doesn’t align with some manufactured moral checklist is automatically undeserving of dignity. She should just swallow abuse and sit down because, according to them, she doesn’t represent the so-called right kind of woman.
“Funny enough, I don’t feel any sense of dread for her future. She has never shied away from confronting authority and bearing the consequences, and all it ever did was elevate her in the long run. Sheybi those other senators (including the disgraceful women amongst them) have reached their career ceilings. I hope we all live long enough to witness what’s coming.”
Daniel described Natasha as caring, saying: “I once randomly messaged Natasha about how much my mother admires her. Not only did she respond – she asked for my mother’s number and personally called to greet her. My mother holds no political power. She’s of no electoral significance to Natasha. This is who Natasha is to me…”
On his part, a former Head of Media of the Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s campaign Council, Mr. David Itopa, said working with her was herculean, hence his decision to quit the job. Itopa, who spoke during an interview on News Central Television, said: “People are different and people are built differently. If you are talking about question of character, I want to believe that people have different characters and react to issues maybe the way it appears to them on different pulse, if I must say.
“I do not think that she is somebody that is easy to deal with. And then the question of gender bias, I disagree with that because in Nigeria we’ve had lots of women taking serious, highly ranked political positions.
“In terms of decision making positions in Nigeria, we have the likes of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and so many of them. And then if you are also speaking about the parliament, we’ve also had great women in the parliament.
“At some point in time, I think we had Mrs. Patricia Ette as the Speaker House of Representatives and so many other persons like that. So, I don’t want to align with that school of thought that women are being harassed and not allowed to make decisions in Nigeria. I don’t think that is completely true.
“And then if you look at the situation in our Senatorial District that culminated in the current recall process of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, you would find that it is not about the issue of popularity, because if you’re talking about popularity going into that election, I mean there were people that believed that if she contested with the man as well. I think Senator Sadiku Ohere of the APC, and he was quite popular in his own right.
“But I’m not his spokesperson and I’m not here to speak for him. But then people felt like okay, there is a woman and she can do better. At the time they felt so and then they also deserve the right to also say, look we are fed up and we are tired of whatever it is and we’re not happy with. And if they decide to recall her, I think it’s within their constitutional rights as enshrined in section 69 of the constitution.”
Speaking about the person of Natasha and whether she appears to be someone problematic while working with her, Itopa said: “While working with her, I faced a lot of challenges, and that was actually one of the reasons I walked out of the campaign council, because, of course, I wouldn’t be where my voice would be emasculated and not allowed to work.
“So, I had to just walk out of the campaign council because it was no longer conducive and the environment was beginning to be stiffly and it looked like I was not even being allowed to do my job.
“I had to practically resign after so many back and forth and all that.”
But for one constituent with whom she has fallen out of grace, her continuous stay in the red chamber remains a blight on Kogi Central and Kogi State. According to him, the rationale for seeking her recall is due to what he described as “national embarrassment and empty display of ego that has brought public opprobrium to the entire people of the senatorial district.”
Also, Comrade Ivava Bello, while appearing on Channels Television programme, “Politics Today”, claimed that the people of the Kogi Central Senatorial District are left with no option but to recall her to forestall worse tendencies that could further embarrass the people.
Comrade Ivava Bello, who signed the recall letter accompanying the sacks full of documents containing signatures of over 250,000 Kogi Central constituents, further explained that the Senator, who was overwhelmingly voted into office, had allegedly “lost track, abandoned the cause of her representation and was now chasing self-agenda rather than championing the cause of the people for federal government’s attention, infrastructure development and job security for the teaming youth of the senatorial district.”
He described Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan as a woman who came to the people with strong appeal which prompted the people to see her as someone who had the ability to represent their interests.
He however added that the last two years has shown that she lacked the maturity, the emotional intelligence and concentration to represent the people.
He alleged that the Senator had shown that she is representing external interests different from what her people dearly need at this time. He further argued that Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has represented her business interests and that of her husband more than the interests of the people who voted her.
On the issue of sexual harassment against Senate President Akpabio, Comrade Ivava said he is less bothered until she provided evidence to prove her allegation. He said they have had too much of her accusations against the likes of former Governor Yahaya Bello, Senator Dino Melaye and former Presidential aide, Reno Omokri, all of which allegedly went unsubstantiated, signaling that this allegation may also be like all the previous cases.
He said while not completely dismissing her allegation, the constituents have to be wary not to get involved in a matter that may end up like the other cases she claimed in the past.
According to one of her constituents, Esther Audu, “Natasha is supposed to be a pride, but my own displeasure against her is that you cannot ruin all your relationships here and there.
“You keep ruining your relationships even with some people who have had an impact in your life. You don’t care, you don’t give a hoot and you destroy it beyond redemption.
“For me, I believe that there are things that women, but this is not to say that I am an enabler for wrong actions, there are things women should not be seen to make public, especially for somebody who has once had your back. Even if they had acted foolishly there are ways the issue can be trashed.
“I don’t know, maybe her fight is what has taken her this far and she wants to continue in that line. She is supposed to be a pride to us, but when your excesses become too much, it will begin to overshadow the good about you.”
Miss Audu however dismissed claims that she visited Okene as captured in the viral video that was circulated on social media early in the week. “She has not visited the constituency since this issue started. The video that was being circulated is a record of her visit to Okene after the Appeal Court gave her victory as the Senator to represent Kogi Central. You can see that she was holding a red folder or thick cardboard box. It was not a recent video,” she said.
For now, it is not clear how the cases and counter cases that have emanated from Natasha’s sexual harassment allegation against the Senate President would pan out in the courts. Neither is any constituent sure whether her ongoing recall process would hit a brick wall or succeed in taking her out of the Senate. However, her supporters are upbeat that the exercise would flop like the one carried out against Dino Melaye in Kogi West Senatorial District during the 8th Senate.
Again, whether her international junketing and disparaging comments about the country may spur her arrest and possible prosecution or a political solution would be adopted is hard to tell.
