{"id":4980,"date":"2025-03-25T10:09:14","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T10:09:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=4980"},"modified":"2025-03-25T10:09:14","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T10:09:14","slug":"justice-egwuatu-withdraws-from-natashas-suit-after-petition-from-akpabio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2025\/03\/25\/justice-egwuatu-withdraws-from-natashas-suit-after-petition-from-akpabio\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Egwuatu Withdraws From Natasha\u2019s Suit After Petition From Akpabio"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"mvp-content-body-top\" class=\"left relative\">\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\" class=\"left relative\">\n<h2>Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has recused himself from hearing the suit filed by the suspended Senator for Kogi Central, Natasha Akpti-Uduaghan<\/h2>\n<p>His decision was based on a petition by Senate President <strong>Godswill Akpabio<\/strong>, who raised concerns about the judge\u2019s objectivity in the matter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"code-block code-block-3\" data-ai=\"WzMsMCwiSW5jb250ZW50IDIgLyBNZ2lkIiwiIiwzXQ==\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1304679\" data-uid=\"04a00\">\n<div id=\"mgw1304679_04a00\">\n<div class=\"mgbox\">\n<div id=\"d4816c1c-095f-11f0-a641-c4cbe1e8e6e2\" class=\"mgline teaser-22678533 type-w\" data-i=\"KaEVQR00qzf6hWbRbbgbYlyl2UQvk1ycbDqNmgbjxF7ixNw2v9rFWAPPC2GytfoDNoA9t08AQCYm299TVOfbVLTjprC47kuY8aD7-vdspMQ*\" data-observing-start=\"1742896765316\" data-observing-time=\"1008\" data-showed=\"1\">\n<div class=\"image-with-text\">\n<div class=\"mcimg\">\n<div class=\"image-container\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The case, originally scheduled for a hearing on Tuesday, took an unexpected turn when Justice Egwuatu announced his decision in a brief ruling. He explained that the case file would be returned to the Chief Judge for reassignment to another judge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>T<\/strong>his development follows a series of legal proceedings surrounding the disciplinary actions against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan.<\/p>\n<p>On March 4, Justice Egwuatu issued an interim order halting the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions from proceeding with disciplinary actions against the senator accused of flouting legislative rules.<\/p>\n<div id=\"browsi_adWrapper_ai_0_ati_1_rc_0\">\n<div id=\"browsi_adContainer_ai_0_ati_1_rc_0\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1702118\" data-uid=\"0ff4f\">\n<div id=\"mgw1702118_0ff4f\">\n<div class=\"mgbox\">\n<div class=\"mgheader\">\n<div class=\"mg_addad1702118 mglogo\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Despite the court\u2019s interim order, which temporarily halted any disciplinary measures, the Senate Committee continued its proceedings and subsequently imposed a six-month suspension on Akpoti-Uduaghan. This move led to further legal challenges.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the Senate\u2019s actions, Justice Egwuatu had earlier given the defendants 72 hours to show cause as to why an interlocutory injunction should not be granted to prevent the probe.<\/p>\n<p>The injunction would halt any investigation into the senator\u2019s alleged misconduct until the case was determined, citing violations of constitutional rights, Senate rules, and legislative privileges.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, through his team of lawyers led by Mr. Kehinde Ogunwumiju, SAN, raised questions regarding the court\u2019s authority to intervene in the internal affairs of the Senate. This challenge has added a layer of complexity to the case, leading to the recusal of Justice Egwuatu.<\/p>\n<p>The matter now awaits reassignment to another judge, as the legal battle continues over the disciplinary measures taken against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mvp-cont-read-wrap\">\n<div id=\"mvp-post-bot-ad\" class=\"left relative\">\n<div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1295320\" data-src-id=\"${PUBLISHER_ID}\" data-uid=\"06736\">\n<div id=\"mgw1295320_06736\">\n<div>\n<div class=\"mgbox\">\n<div class=\"mgheader\">\n<div class=\"mg_addad1295320 mglogo\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row1\">\n<div id=\"d483f064-095f-11f0-a641-c4cbe1e8e6e2\" class=\"mgline teaser-22826988 type-w\" data-i=\"KaEVQR00qzf6hWbRbbgbYtzdUxVQwAF4-2vf0tr2cDEF_NEB08eP-dG-94d3P4XDNoA9t08AQCYm299TVOfbVHnzEP0vgLwqiomL6wULXZM*\" data-observing-start=\"1742896768470\" data-observing-time=\"1157\" data-showed=\"1\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja has recused himself from hearing the suit filed by the suspended Senator for Kogi Central, Natasha Akpti-Uduaghan His decision was based on a petition&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4981,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4980"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4982,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4980\/revisions\/4982"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}