ABUJA, NIGERIA — Senate President Godswill Akpabio has petitioned the Department of State Services over a purported anti-North statement attributed to him and circulated on Facebook and other digital platforms, describing the material as “manifestly false, inflammatory and dangerously divisive” .
In the petition dated September 9, 2026, and signed by his Chief of Staff, Chinedu Akubueze, Akpabio urged the security agency to “urgently” investigate the creation and coordinated dissemination of the statement . The graphic bearing Akpabio’s photograph and designation as President of the Senate allegedly quotes him as saying: “Northerners, You Will Be The Ones To Suffer The Most, If You Allow Tinubu To Lose The Election” .
Akpabio categorically denied making the statement, insisting that “no date, venue, speech, interview, video, audio recordings, official statement or credible news report has been produced to authenticate it” . The petition further alleged that the graphic carries no identifiable publisher’s mark or verifiable source and “appears to have been deliberately manufactured and presented as an authentic quotation for the purpose of deceiving the public, provoking regional resentment against the President of the Senate and portraying him as threatening the people of Northern Nigeria” .
The petition identified some of the earliest traceable amplifiers of the graphic on Facebook, including Abdullai Musa, who allegedly posted the graphic in the “Sheik Muhammad bin Uthman Group 24,” and Uzoma Chilaka, whose Facebook post reproduced the graphic alongside commentary attributed to Boniface Uzoma Chilaka and Engineer Ibrahim Umar Ammar . A verified Facebook account belonging to Engineer Ibrahim Umar Ammar subsequently allegedly reproduced the graphic and substantially similar commentary .
Akpabio cautioned against treating the named individuals as guilty before investigation, describing them instead as “material persons of interest” because of their early and substantial roles in circulating the material . The petition stated they “may possess information capable of identifying the graphics designer, original uploader, sponsors, intermediaries and the network through which it was distributed” .
The petition called for their “publication records, devices, communications and the provenance of the image” to be investigated in accordance with the law . It urged the DSS to establish the origin of the graphic, identify those responsible for its creation and distribution, and determine whether an organised network was involved in its circulation .
The development was disclosed by Jackson Udom, Special Assistant to the Senate President on Media, in a statement on Wednesday . The petition comes amid heightened political activities ahead of the 2027 general elections, with politicians increasingly using social media platforms to mobilise supporters and campaign for public support .
