In a ruling by Justice Chizoba Orji, the court rejected Federal Government’s application that Akpoti-Uduaghan be remanded in prison custody pending the determination of the case against her.
She was arraigned on a three-count charge, and asked to be remanded in prison custody pending the determination of the case against her.
Justice Orji held that it found no reason to deny the defendant bail, saying there was sufficient evidence that she is willing to face her trial.
Consequently, aside from the N50 million, the court held that the defendant must produce one surety who must be a person of integrity that owns a landed property in Abuja.
The court based its decision on Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), as well as Sections 163 and 165 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
The case was subsequently adjourned till 23 September for trial.
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 plot to assassinate her.
In the charge, the Federal Government alleged that Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was listed as the sole defendant, made the false and defamatory remarks when she appeared as a guest on a live television interview.
It specifically accused her of making ‘imputation, knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of a person’.
According to the charge, by making such false imputation that tarnished the image of others, Akpoti-Uduaghan, committed an offence under 391 of the Penal Code, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990. It added that the alleged offence is punishable under section 392 of the same law.
Giving particulars of the offence in count-one of the charge, the Federal Government told the court that the defendant committed the alleged crime on 3 April, during a live broadcast on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Among those listed as witnesses in the matter, included Akpabio and Bello, who were cited as nominal complainants.
Other witnesses billed to testify in the case are two police officers that investigated the matter, Maya Iliya and Abdulhafiz Garba; a Senator, Asuquo Ekpenyong and one Sandra Duru.
The charge, dated 16 May, came on the heels of a letter Akpoti-Uduaghan wrote to the Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi, wherein she accused the police of exhibiting bias in the investigation of her petitions against the Senate President.
The Federal High Court in Abuja had fixed 27 June to determine the legality or otherwise of the six-month suspension that was slammed on the defendant by the Senate.
Akpoti-Uduaghan approached the court after she was summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee following a faceoff she had with the Senate President during plenary on 20 February.
While protesting alleged arbitrary change of her seating position, she repeatedly raised a point of order to be allowed to speak, even though she had been overruled by the Senate President.
Irked by her conduct, the Senate President referred her case to the Ethics Committee. In a television interview she granted on 28 February, Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that her travails in the Senate began after she rejected unwanted advances from the Senate President.
In an ex-parte application, she brought before the court, she applied for an order to declare any action the Senate Committee took within the pendency of her suit, including her suspension, as ‘null, void, and of no effect’.
