Senate President Godswill Akpabio has petitioned the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate an alleged false statement attributed to him, which he said could inflame regional tensions.
The appeal follows the circulation of a purported anti-Northern statement on Facebook and other digital platforms, with the statement presented as a comment allegedly made by the Senate President.
Akpabio’s request signed by his Chief of Staff, Chinedu Akubueze, the alleged statement was described as “manifestly false, inflammatory and dangerously divisive.”
In the request issued on Wednesday, Akubueze urged the DSS to investigate the creation and coordinated dissemination of the statement across social media platforms.
The offending graphic reportedly bears Akpabio’s photograph and official designation and attributes the following words to him: “Northerners, you will be the ones to suffer the most if you allow Tinubu to lose the election.”
Akubueze, however, stated that the Senate President did not make the statement, stressing that there was no evidence to authenticate the purported comment.
According to the petition, no date, venue, speech, interview, video, audio recording, official statement or credible news report has been produced to establish that Akpabio made the remark.
The Chief of Staff also noted that the graphic carried no identifiable publisher’s mark or verifiable source, arguing that it appeared to have been deliberately manufactured and circulated as an authentic quotation.
He expressed concern that the alleged fabrication could heighten political and regional tensions, particularly by portraying the Senate President as making a statement that could be interpreted as threatening or antagonistic towards Nigerians from the North.
Akubueze warned that Nigeria had “paid too high a price for incendiary propaganda,” arguing that politically motivated disinformation capable of setting one part of the country against another should not be allowed to become an accepted tool of political mobilisation.
He cautioned that if such activities were left unchecked, malicious actors or online influence networks could continue to manufacture statements attributed to public officials, potentially damaging institutions, misleading the public and threatening national stability.
The petition called on the DSS to urgently investigate the origin of the graphic and its subsequent dissemination, including the publicly traceable publications linked to the alleged circulation of the statement.
Akubueze said he was prepared to provide the agency with the offending graphic, links to the posts, screenshots, preliminary tracing information and any other assistance required to establish the source and spread of the material.
Among the materials attached to the petition were screenshots and links relating to publications attributed to Abdullahi Musa, Uzoma Chilaka and Ibrahim Ammar, as well as a preliminary chronology of the graphic’s publicly traceable dissemination.
The attachments also included copies of any official denial or clarification concerning the alleged statement, which the petitioner said could assist the DSS in determining the authenticity of the claim.
Akubueze consequently requested formal acknowledgement of the petition and prompt action commensurate with the seriousness of the alleged fabrication and its potential implications for national cohesion and stability.