President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has petitioned the Department of State Services over a purported anti-North statement allegedly attributed to him.
The viral statement quoted Akpabio as saying Northerners would suffer the most if President Bola Tinubu lost the 2027 presidential election.
Akpabio’s Special Assistant on Media, Jackson Udom, disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday.
According to Udom, the petition, signed by Akpabio’s Chief of Staff, Chinedu Akubueze, urged the DSS to urgently investigate the circulation of the alleged false, inflammatory and divisive statement.
He said the graphic, which bore Akpabio’s photograph and official designation, attributed the following words to the Senate President: “Northerners you will be the ones to suffer the most if you allow Tinubu to lose the election.”
Udom, however, said Akpabio did not make the statement, adding that there was no date, venue, speech, interview, video, audio recording, official statement or credible news report to authenticate the quote.
He also noted that the graphic contained no identifiable publisher’s mark or verifiable source.
“The statement appeared to have been deliberately manufactured and presented as an authentic quotation to deceive unsuspecting members of the public,” Udom said.
He alleged that those behind the circulation intended to provoke regional resentment against Akpabio and portray him as threatening people in Northern Nigeria.
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Udom said preliminary checks of publicly accessible Facebook records identified some individuals as among the earliest traceable amplifiers of the purportedly fabricated graphic.
He named Abdullai Musa, who allegedly posted the graphic in a Facebook group known as “Sheik Muhammad bin Uthman Group 24”; Uzoma Chilaka, whose Facebook post reproduced the graphic and commentary; and Ibrahim Ammar, a verified Facebook user who subsequently shared the graphic and similar commentary.
Udom stressed that the individuals should not be presumed guilty before investigation.
He, however, said their alleged early roles in circulating the material made them persons of interest who might have information capable of helping investigators identify the graphic’s designer, original uploader, sponsors, intermediaries and distribution network.
He called for their publication records, devices, communications and the provenance of the image to be investigated in accordance with the law.
