Senate President Godswill Akpabio claims that “people are sponsoring” insecurity in Nigeria as the 2027 general elections inch closer.
Akpabio said this at the commissioning of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRC) headquarters in Abuja.
“You are seeing insecurity today; it’s even increasing because the election is coming. As soon as the election is over, watch out for the first two weeks; you won’t hear any bomb blasts because people are sponsoring to distract,” Akpabio said at the event on Tuesday.
The lawmaker praised President Bola Tinubu for his administration’s reforms, saying the Nigerian leader won’t be distracted but will remain focused on governance despite efforts to the contrary.
“They don’t know what else to do; they say this man is too good in many areas; the government is attracted to him because he is taking very good care of the states.
“Initially, it’s less than 18 governors. Today, we have almost 32 governors under his fold out of 36 states,” Senator Akpabio said.
Nigerians will head to the polls in less than one year. The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has 31 governors and enjoys an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly. While the opposition has accused the ruling party of pushing Nigeria towards a one-party state, Akpabio has dismissed their claims.
In his address, Akpabio accused the opposition of failure to put their house in order, faulting the calls for the resignation of the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, over an alleged partisan social media post.
“So where do we belong? How do you win elections when you don’t know how to structure? No political party today is stable in this country.
“Then they change and say, ‘Let us attack the people going to do the election,’ and they bring out a tweet saying the chairman of INEC said, ‘Victory is Sure’. But he didn’t say victory is sure for APC or PDP, and the man said, ‘It’s manipulated.”
“But for me, whether manipulated or not, he said, victory is sure. He was not the chairman of INEC then. Anybody can support whoever he wishes to, but when you are in a seat, you have to think of the entire country and its populace,” he added.
