Akpabio, Natasha Silent Over Activist’s Fresh Allegation

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.