By Anayo Akwitti
President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) over an alleged anti-North statement attributed to him and circulated on Facebook and other digital platforms.
In the petition signed by his Chief of Staff, Chinedu Akubueze, Akpabio urged the security agency to urgently investigate what he described as the creation and coordinated dissemination of a false, inflammatory and divisive statement purportedly made by him.
The statement, contained in a graphic bearing Akpabio’s photograph and official designation, allegedly reads: “Northerners, you will be the ones to suffer the most if you allow Tinubu to lose the election.”
However, the Senate President said he never made the statement, noting that there was no date, venue, speech, interview, video, audio recording, official statement or credible news report to authenticate the purported quotation.
According to the petition, the graphic had no identifiable publisher or verifiable source and appeared to have been deliberately created to deceive the public, provoke regional resentment against Akpabio and portray him as hostile to people from Northern Nigeria.
The petition identified Abdullai Musa, who allegedly posted the graphic in the Facebook group Sheik Muhammad bin Uthman Group 24, and Uzoma Chilaka, whose Facebook post reportedly reproduced the graphic alongside commentary attributed to him and Engineer Ibrahim Umar Ammar, as among the earliest traceable amplifiers of the material.
Akpabio, however, stressed that the individuals should not be presumed guilty before investigation.
He described them as persons of interest whose publication records and other available information could assist investigators in tracing the origin and distribution network of the alleged fabricated statement.
The Senate President consequently asked the DSS to investigate the provenance of the graphic, including the identity of its creator, original uploader, sponsors and intermediaries, as well as relevant communications and devices, in accordance with the law.
