The office of the President of the Senate has dismissed as a “desperate and dangerous lie” a viral statement attributed to Senator Godswill Akpabio that “Northerners will suffer from January to May if Tinubu loses the election.”
In a statement by the Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Senate President, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, the office said Akpabio never made the comment and challenged those circulating it to produce proof or withdraw it.
Eyiboh said there is no video, audio recording, speech, interview, press release, transcript or credible news report where Akpabio uttered the words.
“A photograph carrying words placed beneath it is not evidence; it is merely an allegation wearing typography,” he stated, describing the claim as a complete fabrication.
The statement specifically called out Engr. Ibrahim Umar Ammar, whose verified Facebook profile lists him with the Atiku Abubakar Campaign Organisation and as Coordinator of ADC-NYAF, Kano State, saying Ammar’s profile also contains other inflammatory political materials that “warrant careful scrutiny by appropriate authorities” for possible promotion of ethnic hostility and public disorder.
It issued a direct challenge to Ammar and others involved: produce the original and unedited video or audio recording, name the occasion, date and venue, and identify the journalists and media organisations that covered it.
“If he merely reposted the material, then let him identify the source and provide the original publication,” Eyiboh said, adding that creators, republishers and coordinators of the dissemination must be held accountable under the law.
Eyiboh described the quote as calculated incitement designed to manufacture fear and hostility between Northern Nigerians and a Southern national leader.
“Nigeria has already paid too terrible a price for the reckless exploitation of ethnicity. No election is worth setting Nigerians against one another,” he said, urging that political contests be fought with ideas and records, not fabricated statements.
The statement defended Akpabio’s record in the North, citing his longstanding allies and appointments, including Alhaji Dr. Jibril Lawal Tafida as the Special Adviser on NGO and Diaspora Matters.
Eyiboh also noted Akpabio was elected Senate President with 63 votes against 46, and that his campaign was championed by prominent Northern leaders, and has since been governing alongside the Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin of Kano.
He further listed legislative actions under Akpabio’s leadership that benefit the North, including the establishment of the North-West Development Commission and North-Central Development Commission, as well as laws creating a Federal Polytechnic in Rano, Kano and a Federal University of Health Sciences in Tsafe, Zamfara.
“These are tangible interventions, not the actions of a leader plotting their suffering,” Eyiboh said.
Citing humanitarian outreach, Eyiboh recalled Akpabio’s visit to Maiduguri after devastating floods.
He said the Senate contributed N74 million to victims as part of a N174 million intervention by both chambers.
He added that the current Senate has also supported laws on student loans, minimum wage, security, education and economic development that benefit Northerners equally.
The media aide warned that freedom of political expression does not include the right to invent explosive ethnic threats.
“Nigerians should refuse to become unwitting transmission belts for this dangerous falsehood. Before sharing, demand the primary evidence,” he said, stressing that repetition on social media cannot transform a lie into truth.
