Alleged Anti-North Comment: Akpabio Petitions DSS
….Demands Investigation Into Viral Statement
President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, has petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) over a purported anti-North statement circulating on Facebook and other digital platforms and attributed to him.
In the petition signed by his Chief of Staff, Chinedu Akubueze, Esq., Akpabio urged the security agency to urgently investigate what he described as the creation and coordinated dissemination of a “manifestly false, inflammatory and dangerously divisive” statement allegedly made by him.
The viral graphic, which carries Akpabio’s photograph and official designation, attributes to him the statement: “Northerners, you will be the ones to suffer the most, if you allow Tinubu to lose the election.”
Akpabio, through the petition, unequivocally denied making the statement, stressing that no credible evidence had been produced to authenticate the purported quotation.
According to the petition, there is no identifiable date, venue, speech, interview, video, audio recording, official statement or credible news report linking the Senate President to the alleged comment.
The petition further alleged that the graphic was deliberately manufactured and circulated as an authentic quotation with the intention of deceiving the public, provoking regional resentment and portraying Akpabio as hostile towards people from Northern Nigeria.
Akpabio also drew the attention of the DSS to some individuals allegedly identified during a preliminary examination of publicly accessible Facebook records as among the earliest amplifiers of the disputed graphic.
They include Abdullai Musa, who allegedly posted the graphic in a Facebook group identified as “Sheik Muhammad bin Uthman Group 24,” and Uzoma Chilaka, whose Facebook post allegedly reproduced the graphic alongside commentary attributed to Boniface Uzoma Chilaka and Engineer Ibrahim Umar Ammar.
The petition also referenced a verified Facebook account belonging to Ibrahim Umar Ammar, which allegedly subsequently reproduced the graphic and substantially similar commentary.
However, Akpabio’s office cautioned that the persons mentioned should not be presumed guilty before investigation.
It described them instead as “material persons of interest,” noting that their early and substantial roles in circulating the material could provide information capable of helping investigators establish the origin of the graphic and identify its designer, original uploader, sponsors, intermediaries and distribution network.
The Senate President consequently requested that the relevant publication records, devices, communications and provenance of the disputed image be investigated in accordance with Nigerian law.
The petition comes amid heightened political activities and growing concerns over the circulation of inflammatory and misleading content on social media ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Jackson Udom, Special Assistant to the President of the Senate on Media, issued the statement on the development.
