The office of the Senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, has said there is no rift between the Senate President and the Senate Leader.
Reports circulated on X and other social media handles that Bamidele and Akpabio exchanged blows at the National Assembly, which made them fail to attend plenary.
But a statement from the media directorate of the Senate Leader, which is usually not signed, said, “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 the ethos of Journalism into the 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 the political system.
“The fact that the Senate Leader, President, and other principal officers of the Senate together received the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. YU Dunhai, and his delegation a few minutes after leaving the plenary on Wednesday is a significant testimony against the imagination of those spreading the fake news.
“Further, photographs of the Chinese envoys with the Senate leadership 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 exact vehicle yesterday.
“This time again, the Senate Leader is warning all attention seekers to be careful and not take the Leader’s gentlemanliness for granted,” the statement said, adding that the leader might 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,” the statement added.