The Northern Democratic Front has issued a public challenge to Senator Adams Oshiomhole to substantiate allegations he made in a recent interview concerning Senate President Godswill Akpabio and officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, warning that public accusations involving senior public institutions must be grounded in verifiable facts and processed through established oversight and investigative mechanisms rather than broadcast exchanges.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary Abdullahi Suleiman, the organization said elected officials had a legitimate responsibility to raise concerns of public interest but that the manner in which those concerns were raised mattered enormously for the health of democratic institutions. It said allegations involving the Senate leadership, the Senate Public Accounts Committee, and NNPCL officials were serious enough to warrant formal engagement with the appropriate investigative authorities rather than television commentary.
The group specifically rejected claims linking members of Akpabio’s family to NNPCL appointments, calling on anyone holding contrary evidence to present it through documentary proof to the proper authorities. It questioned procedural aspects of actions taken in connection with the committee’s oversight of former NNPCL Group Chief Executive Officer Mele Kyari, saying parliamentary processes had to conform strictly with Senate rules regardless of the stakes involved.The NDF said political disagreements and institutional power contests within democratic bodies should be resolved through engagement, persuasion, and adherence to established rules, and that public office holders had a duty to conduct themselves in ways that preserved rather than eroded public confidence in the institutions they occupied.
