10th Senate Presidency: Northern Youths group kick against imposition of Senator Akpabio, alleges corruption saga

A socio-political group, operating under the aegis of Arewa Youths of Nigeria on Saturday opposed the choice of Senator Godswill Akpabio as Senate President of the 10th National Assembly, stating that credibility crisis will rock the parliament, if the ruling All Progressives Congress went ahead.

Arewa Youths statement on Saturday was among the heavy criticism trailing the APC’s choice of Akpabio who is the former governor of Akwa Ibom State as President of the 10th Senate with Senator Jibrin Barau as Deputy Senate President.

In a statement by the group’s General Secretary, Mallam Aliyu Mustapha which was made available to journalists on Saturday, cited a Thisday online Newspapers comment on Friday, 26th May, 2023 which was also against the Akpabio Senate presidency as confirmation of their fears.

Lending their opposition to the proposed Akpabio as Senate President, they urged the APC National Working Committee to critically examine the publication which they said the newspaper is enough for Nigerians to come to terms with why Senator Akpabio should not be made President of the senate.

Some part of the newspapers’ article reads:

“Now we await, in raging stupefaction, the imposition of Senator Godswill Akpabio as the Senate president and the chairman of the national assembly. Spanning the last two decades, his public career has come to symbolise a study in the utility of public corruption and impunity for upward mobility in the ladder of political leadership in Nigeria.

“The tragedy of contemporary Nigeria is the extent to which the perfidy of mindless corruption has been upstaged (by the impunity of how much you can rub the nose of Nigeria in this mud) by the open tender of a pedigree of unspeakable stolen public resources as credentials for higher office. To prove the point is the pending coronation of Akpabio as the next Nigeria’s Senate president.

“In his preceding successive occupations as Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator and Senator-elect, he has left behind tons of evidence on his exploitation of those offices as conduit pipes for unprecedented embezzlement.

“As Governor of Akwa Ibom State, he has a pending case of “withdrawal of N18bn from the state’s coffers under the guise of special services, reception of very important guests and sundry items; acquisition of some assets through surrogates, including a multi-billion naira mansion at Plot 5, Ikogosi Spring Close, off Katsina-Ala Crescent, Maitama-Abuja; a multi-billion naira mansion at Plot 28 Colorado Close, Maitama, Abuja; 22 Probyn Road, Ikoyi, Lagos; Plot 23 Olusegun Aina Street, Parkview, Lagos and a multi-billion naira 25-storey building at Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos”.

“As Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, he was the star culprit in the allegations of N40 billion fraud perpetrated in the NDDC, a ministry which was headed by Akpabio for three years. The Senate over which he will preside resolved in 2020 to probe the alleged N40 billion financial recklessness of the Interim Management Committee (IMC) of the NDDC. Less than two months ago, he was detained by EFCC for two hours after attempting to bribe agency chairman with $350,000.

“The trillion naira question is: How does Akpabio proceed from this immediate background to become the President of the Nigerian Senate?”