Former Adamawa North Senator, Ishaku Elisha Abbo, has accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of running the Nigerian Senate like a personal empire and orchestrating the removal of lawmakers who oppose him.
Speaking in an interview on Arise News Channel’s PrimeTime show on Wednesday night, Abbo alleged that Akpabio played a key role in the removal of five Senators from the 10th Senate, including himself, and has continued to suppress dissenting voices within the upper chamber.
Recounting his experience, Abbo claimed that Akpabio had privately informed him about the planned removal of certain Senators before it happened.
“He told me that five Senators would be removed. I asked how he knew, and he said, ‘I am the Senate President. I know.’ True to his words, five of us were removed. I had no idea that I was one of them,” he stated.
The former Senator further alleged that Akpabio tried to win his loyalty through personal appeals and financial incentives to emerge Senate President in 2023, but was unsuccessful.
“He came to my hotel room around 2am, asking for my support. I told him I was already committed to Yari. Later, at a meeting at Transcorp Hilton, $10,000 was being distributed, but I refused to take any money,” Abbo said.
Abbo also accused Akpabio of deliberately sidelining him after his removal, alleging that he was denied his entitlements given to other affected Senators.
“Every other Senator who was removed by the courts got their vehicles, but I was excluded. This is the level of vindictiveness displayed by Akpabio,” he claimed.
According to him, his troubles with Akpabio began after he pushed for amendments to the Senate Standing Rules that would have restricted first-term Senators from contesting for leadership positions in the Red Chamber.
“I moved a motion to amend the Senate Standing Rules so that only Senators who had served at least one term could contest for Senate leadership. But what did Akpabio do? He rewrote the rules to allow first-term Senators to become leaders of both the majority and minority caucuses—just so he could control them,” Abbo alleged.
He further referenced the case of Senator Ali Ndume, who was removed as Chief Whip and stripped of his role as Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations after questioning the Senate’s leadership.
Highlighting what he described as Akpabio’s authoritarian leadership style, Abbo claimed that Senators regularly serve the Senate President tea at his residence, a practice he strongly opposed.
“Do you know that in Akpabio’s house, Senators serve him tea? Well, I am telling you now. And I told him, ‘You are no longer a governor. These Senators are our colleagues, not your commissioners. They are not here to serve you tea,’” he said.
Despite his criticisms of the Senate leadership, Abbo maintained that his concerns were not about the institution itself but about the way it was being managed.
“I have always defended the integrity of the Senate. The issue is the leadership, not the institution itself,” he concluded.
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