Akpabio petitions DSS over alleged fake anti-northern statement
Senate President Godswill Akpabio has petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) over an alleged false statement circulating on Facebook and other social media platforms in which he was purportedly quoted as making an anti-northern remark.
The petition was made available to journalists in Abuja on Wednesday by Akpabio’s special assistant on media, Jackson Udom.
Akpabio’s chief of staff, Chinedu Akubueze, filed the petition on behalf of the senate president, asking the DSS to investigate what he described as a “manifestly false, inflammatory and dangerously divisive statement” attributed to Akpabio.
The statement, circulated alongside Akpabio’s photograph and official designation, purportedly quoted him as saying that Northerners would suffer the most if President Bola Tinubu lost the 2027 election.
Akubueze said Akpabio never made the statement, noting that no speech, interview, audio or video recording, official statement or credible news report had been produced to authenticate the claim.
The petition also alleged that the graphic had no identifiable publisher or verifiable source and may have been deliberately designed to appear as an authentic statement from the senate president.
Akubueze said the material was capable of misleading the public, provoking anger against Akpabio and creating the impression that he was threatening people from Northern Nigeria. The petition identified some Facebook users who allegedly circulated the graphic but stressed that they should not be presumed guilty before investigation.
The petition urged the DSS to investigate the origin and distribution of the material, including the people behind its creation and dissemination, as political activities intensify ahead of the 2027 general elections.
