![Femi Falana [Channels Television]](https://image.api.sportal365.com/process/smp-images-production/pulse.ng/26072024/052c0a00-541b-459a-87c3-b18bd4f370e4?operations=autocrop(800:480))
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Prominent human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has criticised Senate President Godswill Akpabio for involving the police in what he describes as a civil dispute with fellow lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Akpabio recently petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, after Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged at a political rally that he was involved in an assassination plot.
Falana, however, said Akpabio should seek redress through the courts rather than use the police to handle what he termed a defamation issue.
“In the said petition, Senator Akpabio stated that the alleged defamatory statement is ‘entirely false, unfounded and politically motivated’. To that extent, the Nigeria Police Force should not be asked to criminalise a civil dispute that is politically motivated,” Falana stated.
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He argued that public officers must exercise caution when abusing state power to suppress dissent or intimidate political opponents.
Referring to decisions by the Court of Appeal, Falana highlighted that state machinery should not be used to harass critics or opponents, urging public officials to uphold democratic values and freedoms.
“Public officers must be tolerant of criticism. Where a writer or speaker overshoots his or her boundary, there should be a resort to the law of libel rather than intimidation,” he said.
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Falana concluded by advising Akpabio to “institute a libel suit in the appropriate High Court if he feels defamed by the statement credited to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.”
The dispute has sparked broader discussions around the misuse of law enforcement for political ends and the limits of free speech in Nigeria’s political space.