By Nwabueze Okonkwo
ONITSHA – Human rights lawyer, Sir Ifeanyi Ejiofor, has described the travails of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan as a calculated attempt by a fragile system to break the will of a resilient woman who refuses to bow to intimidation, injustice, or orchestrated pressure.
In a statement titled “Resilience and Repression – Natasha Vs the Nigerian State” issued on Thursday, Ejiofor argued that the avalanche of charges filed against the senator by the Federal Government reflects selective intimidation and the weaponization of state apparatus against dissenting voices.
He said:
“One must ask: Is Senator Natasha the singular project of the Federal Government? Why should the energy, time, and resources of a nation already staggering under insecurity, economic collapse, unemployment, and infrastructural decay be devoted to this targeted persecution?”
Ejiofor noted that Nigeria’s history is replete with episodes where dissenting voices and independent politicians became victims of institutional harassment, from the First Republic to military regimes, and even in the current democratic dispensation.
“Natasha’s case fits squarely into this dark tradition,” he said. “What makes it more tragic is that the victim is a woman, with her gender sharpening the prejudice, bias, and shamelessness of the persecution.”
The rights activist insisted that her “crime” was simply daring to challenge entrenched interests in the National Assembly and in Kogi politics, and for standing as a symbol of courage in a space long dominated by toxic male power play.
He warned that when the state wages war against an individual as though she were an existential threat, it inadvertently elevates that individual into martyrdom.
By unsealing her office and belatedly allowing her to resume legislative duties, Ejiofor said, the authorities had tacitly admitted the futility of their actions.
“This is a grudging acknowledgement that their attempt to silence her has failed, that impunity has been unmasked, and that however inconsistently, minimal respect for law and order must prevail in a constitutional democracy,” he stated.
He further described the ordeal as “a moral mirror held up to Nigeria, an indictment of how low governance has sunk when state power is weaponised in proxy wars on behalf of vested interests.”
Despite this, Ejiofor said Senator Natasha had emerged unbroken.
“Senator Natasha stands tall today, a living testament that resilience in the face of intimidation is the true mark of leadership. Her story has transcended Kogi; it has become a national parable of courage, perseverance, and the eternal struggle against the forces of suppression,” he declared.
Ejiofor concluded by urging Nigeria to rise above what he called “a theatre of absurdity”, warning that history and posterity would not be kind to those who squandered state power in petty vendettas while the nation bled.
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