Readers may still remember my concluding thoughts from the second of my two-part series on the Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senator Godswill Akpabio’s saga on March 19 this year. Whatever direction the saga ended, the career of the two combatants, either in manipulative conduct or making inappropriate comments, was about being terminated, I said.

The twist brought into the saga by the entrance of a US-based social media personality, Dr. Sandra Duru aka Prof. Mgbeke, has all but strengthened my position. Dr. Duru was one of the early supporters of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan in her fight with Senator Godswill Akpabio. She had made posts in favour of the Kogi Senator. But she gradually withdrew that support and called for a peaceful resolution of the matter. 

In numerous posts in the weeks following the controversy, she demanded Natasha provide proof of her allegations or drop the matter for a peaceful settlement with the President of the Senate. Her language got more acerbic with each passing week even as Akpoti-Uduaghan doubled down on the matter. Prof. Mgbeke would later start speaking of her own findings on the issue based on her interaction with Natasha and she promised to reveal them at the appropriate time. She spoke of those she called “useful idiots”, a term she said Natasha called those she had recruited to her side in her dangerous scheme to destroy the political career of Akpabio. 

All of that culminated in the live session she had on Facebook last Thursday. There she played back recordings of her phone conversations with Natasha concerning her fight with Akpabio. These recordings, along with other evidence, she claimed had been forensically verified and submitted to relevant security agencies abroad and in Nigeria. She promised to follow up on that with media interviews on international media stations like the CNN. What Dr Duru’s recordings revealed along with her commentaries on them are damning for Natasha, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, Arise Television and the FIDA team led by Dr. Abiola Laseinde that went to defend Natasha before the Senate panel investigating her allegations against Akpabio. 

They upended Natasha’s allegations and cast doubt on the impartiality, even integrity, of Dr. Ezekwesili and Dr. Abiola as witnesses of truth. These women attended the Senate session simply to “filibuster” and stall the session. Their mission was to ensure that the investigation didn’t go forward, according to the recording in question. Anyone who saw the performance of the duo of Dr. Ezekwesili and Dr. Abiola on that panel would find it hard to believe otherwise. They stalled, grandstanded, refused to swear on oath and danced around the issues until matters took an unexpected turn between Dr. Ezekwesili and Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyin who was at the panel to represent Akpabio. 

It was an unseemly shouting match that harmed the image of both Senator Nwaebonyin and Dr. Ezekwesili. But it did more harm to the public perception of Dr. Ezekwesili’s carefully curated public image than it did to the much younger senator. Her attempt to browbeat the panel into coming to her defence after drawing the first blood by asking Senator Nwaebonyin to shut up. She certainly left that session with her image much diminished. 

Aside of the fact that the voice on the recordings and the mannerism of the speaker were obviously those of Natasha, Dr. Duru said other things that had elements of truth in them. But in this age of AI-generated contents where it’s common for things to be manipulated, it’s easy for anyone to deny anything even when caught red-handed as it seems the case is with Natasha. But until her claims have been investigated and her recordings independently verified, all Dr. Duru has so far said remain mere allegations. This was the basic minimum that supporters of Natasha were unwilling to concede when they demanded alongside Natasha that Akpabio step down as President of the Senate on the basis of the unproven allegations of Natasha. 

They remain mere fabrications until Natasha provides the evidence she has always promised but failed to provide. She’s already into the third month of her six months suspension and she is yet to provide any iota of evidence to support her allegations. Her new song that is being chorused by her supporters is that she would provide her evidence in court. She, however, lacks both the restraint and discipline not to gratify her desire and wait until she gets to court to prove her case. That she has so far offered no evidence suggests she has none. Until the courts imposed silence on both parties in her fight with Akpabio, she enjoyed making the rounds of media houses just to repeat new versions of her unproven allegations. And just when she thought attention had shifted from her, she came up with her so-called satirical letter of apology. 

Senator Natasha should know she cannot get this behind her with a wave of the hand. She may have established a reputation over a ten-year period of making unfounded sexual allegations, she must go beyond mere denial of the allegations against her by Dr. Duru. 

There is a lot in Dr. Duru’s revelations that Natasha has to respond to. The most basic here is whether she has ever spoken to Dr. Duru or not. The other woman insist that Natasha called her and provided very credible, if unverified, evidence of it. If either of the women has lied about this, her other allegations fall flat on their face. More so for Natasha: it makes her a dangerous person that should not be anywhere around power. 

Now other women-led organisations are coming out to question Natasha’s allegations, saying they found lies and inconsistencies in her claims, she needs to do more than dismiss Prof. Mgbeke’s allegations as untrue. The President Citizens Quest for Truth Initiative, Mrs.Chritie Ndukwe, said exactly that in her interview with Seun Okinbaloye. It’s remarkable that it’s women that have been turning the light on Natasha. As Ndukwe said, they are women and they can understand where Natasha is coming from. At their approach Natasha seems to be running away unlike when she was enjoying herself and “catching cruise” with Akpabio’s reputation. It’s a different ball game now and she appears poised for a rocky ride. 

As for Madam Due Process, one hopes she’s learning her lessons fast. She needs not hop on every issue in the fashion of an agbero hopping on molue. She should show some degree of emotional distance from issues she’s interested in order for her to be taken seriously. Right from her campaign for the return of the Chibok girls and her infamous part in the Mmesoma Ejikeme’s case, she has shown a worrying pattern of partisan activism while pretending to be on some moral high ground.