{"id":81144,"date":"2026-01-04T11:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T11:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=81144"},"modified":"2026-01-04T11:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T11:36:09","slug":"natasha-dismisses-fears-over-yahaya-bellos-senatorial-ambition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2026\/01\/04\/natasha-dismisses-fears-over-yahaya-bellos-senatorial-ambition\/","title":{"rendered":"Natasha Dismisses Fears Over Yahaya Bello\u2019s Senatorial Ambition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has dismissed concerns that former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello\u2019s plan to contest the Kogi Central senatorial seat in 2027 poses any threat to her, saying she is unfazed by the move.<br \/>\nSpeaking through her Special Adviser on Media, Mike Idoko, the Kogi Central lawmaker said Bello\u2019s ambition does not put her under pressure.<br \/>\n\u201cWe don\u2019t see it as a threat. In fact, we are happy that he wants to contest. We are waiting for them,\u201d she said.<br \/>\nBello recently announced his intention to run for the seat during a visit to the palace of the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, where he met with traditional rulers, religious leaders and other stakeholders. A video of the declaration was later shared on his verified Facebook page.<br \/>\nThe event was attended by Kogi State Governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo, who reportedly urged Bello to heed calls from party leaders and constituents to represent the district in the Senate.<br \/>\nAkpoti-Uduaghan won the Kogi Central seat in 2023 after a prolonged legal battle, becoming the first woman to represent the district in the Senate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Ebere Immaculata Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has dismissed concerns that former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello\u2019s plan to contest the Kogi Central senatorial seat in 2027 poses any threat to her, saying she is unfazed by the move. Speaking through her Special Adviser on Media, Mike Idoko, the Kogi Central lawmaker said Bello\u2019s ambition [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":81145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172,186],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81146,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81144\/revisions\/81146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}