By Olugbenga Salami
President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio said Tuesday that Nigeria’s worsening insecurity is being sponsored to distract the country as the 2027 general elections approach.
Speaking during the commissioning of the Nigeria Revenue Service, NRS (formerly Federal Inland Revenue Service, FIRS) headquarters in Abuja, he argued that the violence is politically motivated and predicted a sharp drop once polls close.
“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,” he said.
Akpabio praised President Bola Tinubu’s reforms and insisted the administration remains focused despite distractions.
“They say this man is too good in many areas,” he said, referring to Tinubu.
The Senate President claimed governors are gravitating toward the president 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,” Akpabio stated, adding that “with less than a year to the polls, the All Progressives Congress, APC controls 31 states and holds a commanding majority in the National Assembly.”
The opposition has accused the ruling party of nudging Nigeria toward a one‑party state, a charge the Senate President rejected.
He faulted opposition parties for failing to organise themselves and criticised calls for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC chairman, Joash Amupitan to resign over an alleged partisan social media post.
The calls followed a disputed social media post attributed to Amupitan that read, “Victory is Sure.”
“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,” Akpabio declared.
