Akpabio, Natasha silent over activist’s fresh allegation

Senate President Godswil Akpabio and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, have declined to comment on a fresh allegation by a United States-based activist, Sandra Duru, popularly known as Prof Mgbeke, that Akpabio engaged her to campaign against the Kogi senator.

Duru made the allegation in a nine-minute audio recording released on social media on Friday and which went viral on Saturday.

The fresh account contradicted Duru’s her earlier claim that Akpoti-Uduaghan had attempted to recruit her to make allegations against Akpabio.

Duru described the recording as a preview of further disclosures concerning her relationship with Akpabio and the controversy involving Akpoti-Uduaghan.

She also released excerpts in which a male voice, which she identified as that of Akpabio, allegedly discussed political developments involving former Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, and a senator from the state, Ned Nwoko.

In one of the excerpts, the Senate President allegedly said Okowa joined the All Progressives Congress because of concerns over corruption cases rather than sincerity.

However, the authenticity of the recording, the identities of the voices and the full context of the conversation could not be independently verified by Sunday PUNCH as of the time of filing this report.

Efforts to obtain the reaction of Akpabio’s media aide, Eseme Eyiboh, were unsuccessful.

Eyiboh neither picked his calls nor responded to messages sent to him seeking clarification on the allegation.

The Akpoti-Uduaghan camp also declined to comment.

When contacted, her media aide, Mike Idoko, said the senator’s camp was not interested in the matter.

“We have no comment on this issue, please,” he told our reporter on the phone before cutting the call.

The latest development comes more than a year after Duru was drawn into the dispute between Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan.

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In May 2025, Duru alleged that Akpoti-Uduaghan offered her N200m to make false allegations against Akpabio.

Akpoti-Uduaghan denied the allegation and described Duru’s claims as untrue.

The controversy later escalated, with Akpoti-Uduaghan petitioning the Inspector-General of Police over allegations involving Akpabio and Duru.

She called for an investigation into what her lawyers described as a coordinated campaign against her.

Duru has now presented the latest recording as evidence of a different account of her relationship with the Senate President.

Neither Akpabio nor his office had publicly confirmed or denied the authenticity or contents of the recording as of the time of filing this report.

The PUNCH had on January 24, 2026, reported that a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory restrained Duru and Meta Platforms Inc., operators of Facebook, from further circulating materials alleged to be defamatory against the senator.

The ruling was delivered by Justice I. Mohammed in Suit No: FCT/HC/CV/229/2025, following an application by Akpoti-Uduaghan seeking urgent judicial protection against what she described as sustained online attacks on her reputation.

In a Certified True Copy of the ruling sighted by our correspondent, the court held that the application raised “a serious question to be tried” and that immediate intervention was required to prevent irreparable damage to the claimant’s reputation pending determination of the substantive suit.

Justice Mohammed subsequently ordered that Duru, “either by herself, her agents, privies, or howsoever called, is restrained from further publishing, posting, sharing, disseminating or promoting on Facebook or any other social media platform any material containing defamatory, scandalous, inciteful or injurious content against the Applicant pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.”

The court also directed Meta Platforms Inc. to “immediately take down and/or disable access to all offending publications, posts or broadcasts made by the 1st Defendant against the Claimant, whether in her personal name or under the pseudonym ‘Prof. Mgbeke,’ pending the determination of the suit.”

The new allegations contained in the audio therefore remain unverified pending responses from the individuals involved and any independent examination of the recording.