Suspended Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello of conspiring to kill her.
She also claimed that both men were behind the recall petition submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking to remove her from office.
Speaking at a homecoming rally in Kogi on Tuesday, in a video clip that has gone viral, Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that Akpabio initially approached Kogi State Governor Usman Ododo on March 12, asking him to initiate a recall process against her.
However, according to her, Ododo declined, citing strong public support for her.
“Let me say this now. On the 14th of March… Mind you, two days before that, which was on the 12th, Akpabio spoke to Governor Ododo to recall me, but he told him it won’t be possible because the masses are with her, the people are with her,” she claimed.
Dissatisfied with Ododo’s response, Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that Akpabio summoned Bello for a late-night meeting, facilitated by another senator.
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“I was informed of everything. The meetings were in twofold. They told him to commence my recall and that he was going to fund it. Of course, monies changed hands that night,” she alleged.
The senator further claimed that during the meeting, Akpabio allegedly urged Bello to orchestrate her assassination but to ensure it occurred in Kogi, not Abuja.
“He told him that he should make sure that killing me does not happen in Abuja, it should be done here so it will seem as if it’s the people that killed me here,” Akpoti-Uduaghan stated.
She disclosed that while she initially kept the information private, she had officially reported it to law enforcement agencies.
Additionally, Akpoti-Uduaghan accused Akpabio of removing her from a Senate committee due to her stance on the allocation of resources.
“In his words, he said, ‘How can such resources from the Niger Delta be moved to the north that you did not stop it?’ By the way, it is because of the five LNG projects that Akpabio removed me from the committee of local content,” she alleged.
Her accusations come amid heightened political tensions, following her six-month suspension from the Senate.
