By Raphael Ekpang
As Senate President, Godswill Akpabio’s media handlers struggle to prove SaharaReporters wrong on a report on their principal’s health status, a source has said that the SP lies to Nigerians against a credible report from SaharaReporters.
SaharaReporters had reported that Senator Godswill Akpabio, the Nigerian Senate President, allegedly slumbed on Thursday 14th December during his birthday colloquium at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja.
According to the report, Akpabio collapsed while attending to President Bola Tinubu’s departure from the occasion and was wheeled off on a stretcher.
But, a day after his media team put on a damage control press briefing where the former governor of Akwa Ibom state and Minister of Niger Delta Ministry instead of admitting he collapsed said what happened to him was stress-induced, coupled with malaria.
He said, “What eventually happened after the event was a show of humanity.
“I went home and I called my doctors, and I was assured that I have malaria, mingled with stress, which could also be described in another way as exhaustion.
“In fact, anybody could be exhausted. Please drink water regularly so that you don’t get exhausted.”
Akpabio further noted that he wasn’t perturbed by the incident, saying, “This is to say that the work goes on. I want to assure Nigerians that the National Assembly is intact and we are still going on with our duty and our appropriation.
However, a source at the event confirmed to Core Reporters that the report by SaharaReporters was the true story of what happened, blasted the Senate president for lying to Nigerians whose tax he is enjoying in his office.
According to the Source, “What is wrong if the Senate President own up to his health status, is he the first to collapse in a public function or will he be the last? Nigerian leaders should learn how to be truthful to the tax players, they owned them a responsibility to tell them the true position of things at all times, that is the way to go.
“He should be grateful to God that he only collapsed, some persons collapsed and die, but he collapsed and received treatment and is back healthy and stronger, so why lying? If it were in the Western world, update of their leaders’ health status would be giving per minutes, does that change anything,” the source queried.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu and other dignitaries had gathered at the Congress Hall of the hotel for a colloquium to mark the 61st birthday of the Senate President in Abuja.
Sources told SaharaReporters that Akpabio was briefly stabilized before being taken to the hospital.
“Senate President Akpabio collapsed today (Thursday) after his 61st birthday colloquium in Abuja while seeing the President off.
He was briefly stabilised before being rushed to the NNPC hospital in Abuja where he was wheeled into a special room on a stretcher,” one of the sources had said.
