Senator Opeyemi Bamidele has denied allegations of a physical altercation with Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Cyber Reporters gathered that the rumor, initially spread by Jackson Ude on social media, claimed that Bamidele confronted Akpabio at the Senate cafeteria, accusing him of favoring northern lawmakers with lucrative committee positions.
However, Bamidele’s media team quickly dismissed the claims as baseless and untrue.
Bamidele did not hold back, labeling Ude a notorious blackmailer and “cash-and-carry” journalist.
He emphatically stated that no physical fight occurred between him and Akpabio on Wednesday.
Cyber Reporters reports this is not the first time Bamidele has been at odds with rumors surrounding Akpabio.
Previously, he alleged that some lawmakers were plotting to remove Akpabio as Senate President.
The statement reads:
“For the record, it is a verifiable fact that Senator Bamidele has never been involved in physical assault in over two decades of his political trajectory, not even when he was a young man leading the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) as President.
“It is surprising that the purveyor of this misleading information in his selfish agenda and unprofessional conduct threw ethos of Journalism into waste bin and decided to feast on roadside gists to tarnish the image of the Senate Leader.
“We are aware that the fake news is meant to cause disaffection within the Senate and by extension; heating up the political system.
“To think that the Senate Leader, President of the Senate and other principal officers of the Senate together received the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. YU Dunhai and his delegation few minutes after leaving the plenary on Wednesday is a significant testimony against Ude’s imagination.
“Further to this, photographs of the Chinese envoys with the leadership of the Senate were widely published in today’s major national newspapers. It is equally verifiable that the Senate Leader and the Senate President both drove out of the National Assembly premises in the same vehicle yesterday.
“This time again, the Senate Leader is sounding a note of warning to all attention seekers in the ilk of Ude to be careful and not take the Leader’s gentlemanliness for granted.
”Henceforth, the Leader will be forced to use the instrumentality of the law to protect himself and his office as enshrined in the CyberCrime Act 2015. We, therefore, urge the public to disregard this misinformation and treat it with the disrespect it deserves.
“Nigeria’s disruptive fifth columnists have been failing. This is another remarkable failure. The 10th Senate is a uniquely united assembly of noble and patriotic Nigerians, hence no subterfuge can alter the bond.”
