Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele has denied claims of a physical confrontation with Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
The allegations, made by Jackson Ude on his X account, accused Bamidele of confronting Akpabio in the Senate cafeteria over the alleged exclusion of southern lawmakers from key committee appointments in favor of northern colleagues.
In a statement released by his media team, Bamidele dismissed the accusations as false and baseless, labeling Ude a “serial blackmailer” and “cash-and-carry journalist.”
Opeyemi Bamidele’s media team criticized Ude’s actions, accusing him of spreading baseless rumors to tarnish the Senate Leader’s image.
The statement explained that the Senate leadership, including Akpabio and Bamidele, hosted the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, YU Dunhai, shortly after the alleged incident, which disproves the claims.
He said that photos of the meeting were widely published, and it was confirmed that both leaders left the National Assembly together in the same vehicle.
The statement also warned against further attempts to spread falsehoods, adding that the Cybercrime Act of 2015 could be used to address such actions.
The media team urged the public to dismiss the allegations, describing them as part of a failed effort to create divisions within the 10th Senate, which they referred to as a united body of patriotic Nigerians.
The statement read: “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.”
Meanwhile, Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume has urged the Senate to back the appointment of Ifeanyi Ubah’s widow to take over her late husband’s position as the representative of Anambra South.
