A group, the Amalgamated Southern Nigeria Youths Forum (ASNYF), has accused some northern elements of pushing and orchestrating the move for the removal of Senate President Godswill Akpabio from office through what it termed a false allegation of sexual harassment, using the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as a point of contact.
The group, while addressing the media on Thursday in Abuja through its president, Honourable Oleh Victor, in a speech titled “Reply to the press briefing of Arewa Youths Assembly by the Amalgamated Southern Nigeria Youths Forum,” described the plot to remove the Senate President as dead on arrival, saying it is an agenda by some northern elements to run Akpabio down in what is strictly a Senate affair but is now being used to whip up public sentiments.
Honourable Victor specifically accused the Arewa Youths Assembly of being the vessel used by “some northern elements” to hit Akpabio, whose headship of the National Assembly, he claimed, has brought about a lot of projects as well as the passage of bills that have benefited the North.
Reading from a prepared speech, Victor said, “We stand by Senate President, His Excellency, Senator Godswill Akpabio. The plan to remove Senator Akpabio from office as Senate President by some northern elements through false allegations of sexual harassment has failed. It is dead on arrival.
“We have seen very clearly that the plan to remove the Senate President is an agenda by some northern elements that was handed down to Senator Natasha to execute but they have failed woefully as the wrongly planned sexual harassment accusation is now dead on arrival. One can see very clearly that what ordinarily should have been the affairs of the Senate has become affairs of some Arewa elements using their youths to dictate to the Senate on what to do. This is laughable.
“They even alleged that the North has benefited nothing from government since Senator Akpabio became the Senate President. This is another false allegation like the sexual harassment allegation.
“The 2024 and the 2025 Nigeria budgets were, and are, loaded with a lot of projects for Northern Nigeria. In fact, so many bills have been passed in favour of Northern Nigeria, which includes the North Central Development Commission bill, which was passed under the leadership of Senator Akpabio and assented to by Mr President. One can see that Senator Natasha and his sponsors are serial liars.
“We, the Amalgamated Southern Nigeria Youths Forum, hereby send strong warnings to the Arewa Youths and Senator Natasha to stop harassing our leader and mentor, His Excellency, Senator Godswill Akpabio. They said they shall block the roads for movements of goods and people. We hereby reply to them that we have more capacity than they do. We have the oil and gas that drive the Nigeria economy. In fact, we are sending a strong warning to the Arewa Youths.
“We, the entire youth from Southern Nigeria, hereby say that you cannot have 5 LNG plants in Kogi State without giving any to the Niger Delta. You must consider the proximity to the source of raw material in the establishment of the industry. It is not Senator Akpabio that is saying this, but the entire people from Niger Delta through PANDEF, the apex socio-political body of the Niger Delta, the South-South geo-political zone.”
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