Akpoti-Uduaghan Natasha Hadiza

Natasha Hadiza Akpoti is a Nigerian politician and lawyer born on December 9, 1979, in Ilorin, Kwara State, to a Nigerian father from Kogi State and a Ukrainian mother originally from Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Her parents met in the Soviet Union while Jimoh Abdul Akpoti was studying medicine.

She grew up in Ihima, Okehi, Kogi State, where she attended Christ the King School for primary education before briefly attending Government Girls Unity Secondary School in Oboroke, Kogi. She later completed her secondary studies at Federal Government College, Idoani in Ondo State, graduating in 1997.

After moving to Abuja following her father’s death in 1998, she pursued higher education at the University of Abuja, earning a Bachelor’s degree in Law from 2000 to 2004. She married young and had a son by the time she was nineteen.

Called to the Nigerian Bar on November 8, 2005, Akpoti studied further at the University of Dundee for an LL.M. (2010) and earned an MBA in Oil and Gas Management in 2012. Before entering politics, she worked as a legal counsel at Brass LNG from 2007 to 2010.

She founded Builders Hub Impact Investment Program in 2015, focusing on social entrepreneurship and reform. Her activism gained prominence when she exposed corruption at the Ajaokuta Steel Mill with an investigative report presented to the National Assembly in March 2018, leading to a libel lawsuit.

Initially contesting as a senator for Kogi Central under PDP, Akpoti lost her 2023 election but later won the dispute in court. She served as a senator since 2023, representing Kogi Central and becoming the first female senator from Kogi State in the National Assembly.

Her career includes awards like the African Women Leadership Award (2016) and recognition for her work on steel mill revival. In 2025, she faced allegations of sexual harassment against former Senate President Godswill Akpabio, leading to a suspension and subsequent legal challenges.

In March 2022, she remarried Emmanuel Uduaghan in Kogi State, having three children. Her family’s home was attacked in April 2025, though security forces repelled the assailants.