The Nigerian Senate has directed the National Security Adviser, NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, to probe the circulation of false reports which claim that Senate President Godswill Akpabio suffered a health emergency and was rushed to a hospital in London.
The resolution was adopted during plenary on Tuesday after a point of order raised by Senator Titus Zam, who condemned the spread of such misinformation on various media platforms.
Zam described the reports as unacceptable and urged the relevant authorities to identify and prosecute those responsible to deter future incidents.
Presiding over the session, Akpabio lamented the growing challenge of regulating media content, especially regarding politicians.
“Much of the output on certain platforms are garbage in, garbage out, highlighting the difficulty in curbing falsehoods,” Akpabio said.
This is coming amid recent online rumors alleging Akpabio’s collapse and hospitalization, which his aide as refuted as fake news.
