November 05, (THEWILL) – Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has proven beyond reasonable doubt to Yahaya Bello, the governor of Kogi State, that she is no doormat to be trampled upon at will. Her victory at the Court of Appeal to regain her stolen mandate from Senator Abubakar Ohere, the All progressive Congress candidate, was a heavy colossal loss for the governor who did everything within his power to frustrate her to give up on challenging Ohere and him by extension.
During the week, the Court of Appeal in Abuja affirmed her electoral victory as the winner of the February 25 National Assembly election in Kogi Central Senatorial District. In the judgment, a three-member panel of the court upheld the judgment of the State’s election tribunal and dismissed the appeal filed by her contender and the governor.
Instead, the court agreed with the submission of Natasha’s counsel for being meritorious. The appellate court awarded the sum of N500,000 against Ohere and invalidated his victory. She was thereafter sworn in as the duly elected senator to represent Kogi Central. No doubt, Natasha’s political journey has been a tortuous one, made even worse by the governor’s insistence on stopping her.
Her political journey dates back to 2019 when she attempted to challenge him in the gubernatorial election. The self-styled social entrepreneur had made an attempt in 2018 to run for a seat in the National Assembly to represent Kogi Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), but it was an effort in vain. Natasha had claimed at the time that the governor planned to assassinate her for daring to give expression to her political ambition.
She had alleged manipulation and rigging in favour of his candidate as the reason for her loss. She recently revealed that the governor had offered her at that time N50 million to step down from the race but instead, she shifted focus to the governorship election.
However, her ambition in that direction failed to happen and she challenged the result of the election, alleging that the election was marred by irregularities, bribery and malpractice, all of which favoured Bello to emerge winner. She thereafter dumped the SDP for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and emerged the party’s senatorial candidate in the 2023 general election.
To stop her making any progress with her plan, he first allegedly accused her of having an alleged link with a notorious terrorist known as Safiu. This prompted the Northern Youths Movement (NYM) to demand an immediate probe of the allegation by the Police and Department of State Services.
Then just a few days before the polls, the governor dug out huge gulleys on roads leading to Natasha’s hometown. His aim according to Natasha was to prevent officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission from getting there to administer the election.
In defense, the state government claimed that the excavation was a deliberate security measure to cut off traffic on those roads with a view to restricting the use of the roads by criminals who had been breaching the peace of the area with attendant loss of lives and property.
Despite this manipulation, it didn’t stop people from coming out en masse to vote for Natasha. The election was marred with violence, ballot box snatching etc and at the end of the polls, Ohere was declared winner. Natasha, knowing she clearly won, challenged his electoral victory at the State’s election tribunal and she was declared winner.
Not satisfied, the governor and his candidate appealed the judgement and Natasha was again affirmed winner. Whether Bello and Ohere will pursue the matter to the Supreme Court remains to be seen.
Ironically before all of these, she was in the good books of the governor and was even closer to his three wives until their friendship was torn apart by politics of bitterness. But today, she is obviously having the last laugh.
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