PARROT POLITICS BACKFIRES AS COURT ORDERS SUBSTITUTED SERVICE ON SENATOR NWAEBONYI IN N5 BILLION SUIT

Senator Nwaebonyi, once the town crier of Akpabio’s court, now finds his tongue under legal siege in a N5 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan

There is a time in every kingdom when the court jester forgets the crown is borrowed. He dances too wildly, flings careless jokes, and soon begins to believe he is the king. Such is the unfolding comic tragedy starring Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, a man who, not long ago, styled himself as the vocal sword of Senate President Godswill Akpabio, waving wild accusations like carnival ribbons. He sang louder than the drums, hurled slurs like stones, and played the village talking parrot with a passion so reckless it drew blow from even the elders in the market square. Now, the once feared voice appears to have kicked off itself into the courtroom. Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, once known for taunting Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan with careless pride, his laughter has now met the humbling sound of not just a court summon, but a legal drama thick enough to sober a drunken lion.

On Wednesday, the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, presided and set the scene for what may become a landmark moment in Nigeria’s evolving political scene. Justice Angela Otaluk granted an order for substituted service on the same Senator Nwaebonyi in a defamation suit instituted by the ever defiant Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. The allegation is not some routine political insult, but a hefty N5 billion claim over wild, unguarded remarks that the Senator from Ebonyi North claimed Natasha mothered six children for six different men. A cocktail of tasteless gossip now bearing the aroma of legal consequence. In simple terms, the court has lost patience with formalities. The man has been too elusive, so the legal system now intends to place the lawsuit where he cannot dodge

The court’s ruling permits service of court documents either via a national newspaper or through the Clerk of the National Assembly; a move often reserved for those who prove elusive or too politically lubricated to be cornered through conventional means. It is, in the eyes of many, the judicial equivalent of knocking at the palace gate when the masquerade refuses to remove its mask. Whether the said Senator receives it by courier, carrier pigeon, or by murmurs from the Senate Clerk’s office is no longer the concern of the bench. What matters now is that his name, long printed on the scrolls of political mischief, must now face the seriousness of legal redress. For a man who once chased cameras, he now runs from envelopes.

However, it does not end there. Senator Natasha, presently under a questionable six-month suspension, has refused to keep silent. She has lodged a petition with the Inspector-General of Police, naming not only the Ebonyi Senator, but also dragging in the Senate President himself and a certain Sandra Duru, a woman who reportedly decorates her name as “Prof. Mgbeke”. The petition was duly copied to the Attorney General of the Federation, an uncommon move that signposts a case now dancing dangerously close to the seat of power. This is no jokes but about whether power can continue to bully truth and expect silence in return. For once, the senator from Kogi seems ready to pull all the masks off.

In a society where lies often travel faster than court processes, it remains to be seen whether this drama will teach others to measure their tongue before their ambition. The Akpabio inner circle, which once considered Nwaebonyi their favourite parrot, may soon find that parrots can indeed be summoned to court, and made to repeat under oath. The courtroom is no beer parlour. It remembers things the Senate floor conveniently forgets. With a hearing fixed for June 25th, the gavel may yet teach the difference between political drama and reputational homicide.

The streets of social media may roar with laughter, but inside the courtroom, it is silence that speaks. It is no longer about insults or who has the better insult factory. It is about evidence, facts and whether a man’s mouth can cost more than his mansion. Political noise does not work in legal chambers. No one throws chairs or punches there. No one orders ‘point of order’. It is either you defend your words or prepare to pay dearly for them.

So, the show begins, but this time, it is a court of record. If Nwaebonyi believed that verbal thuggery could always be masked as political loyalty, he may soon realise that in the eyes of the law, even jesters are expected to behave. The Akpabio franchise may have many actors, but very few are willing to face a N5 billion consequence. Nwaebonyi, the same man who once sounded like a broken alarm clock every time Natasha’s name appeared, must now stand before the very system he once mocked. Perhaps, in the fullness of time, the parrot will learn that mimicking the king does not come without cost.

By: ILUO DePOET

Lawyer | Author | Public Speaker | Advocate | Pan-African