Five Hurdles Natasha Akpoti Scaled To Emerge Victorious

Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has emerged victorious at the Abuja appellate court as the duly elected candidate for the Kogi Central Senatorial District.

The verdict which was given on Tuesday also dismissed the appeal filed by her contender, Abubakar Ohere of the All Progressives Congress for lacking merit.

The ruling affirmed that Akpoti-Uduagan of the Peoples Democratic Party is the winner of the February 25 election, hence the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial.

Like many political struggles in the country, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s political career has been full of ups and downs, before the 43-year-old lawyer clinched her success on Tuesday.

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The Stepping Stone

The Kogi politician came into the limelight after she submitted an investigative report to the National Assembly on 1 March 2018 revealing the corrupt activities regarding the Ajaokuta steel mill.

According to Akpoti-Uduaghan, the report delved into the unending lavishness of government funds and embezzlement since the first construction of the steel mill which has remained moribund despite multiple attempts to get it running.

The report generated a lot of criticisms against her, as it was opposed by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development, while she was accused of deliberately misinforming the House of Representatives.

How the race started

Akpoti-Uduaghan, in the same 2018, announced her declaration to join politics under the umbrella of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), and her first popularity test was to contest against Governor Yahaya Bello in the 2019 Kogi governorship election, which she lost.

One of the ambivalent points for her was narrowly losing to her kinsman and political opponent, Bello in her polling unit with just 2 votes having garnered 76 votes the governor had 78 votes.

Verbal and physical assault

As one of the despicable means to dampen her resilient spirit ahead of the election in 2019, she was attacked by political thugs on her way to the INEC stakeholders’ meeting.

She claimed that the security men present at the scene of the incident left her to fate as the thugs allegedly loyal to the governor verbally and physically assaulted her.

Obstruction of stronghold

Akpoti-Uduaghan entered another senatorial race in the state against Ohore in the 2023 general election.

The Kogi Amazonian politician faced another huge limitation in the early morning of the senatorial election on February 25, 2023, when the Yahaya Bello-led Kogi State government excavated portions of the road linking to her senatorial district.

The governor boldly came out that morning to state the construction was to allegedly prevent the hoodlums from having access to the road.

Victory at last

The Kogi State Election Petition Tribunal in September nullified the victory of Ohore as the winner of Kogi Central Senatorial election, thus declaring Akpoti-Uduaghan as the winner.

The case was brought before the Court of Appeal and turned out to be in favour of the woman who has faced many battles of Kogi politics, but still standing.