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Summary
Misleading claims on social media falsely suggest Senate President Godswill Akpabio apologised to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and misrepresent her sexual harassment reports against him.
Summary
In recent events within the Nigerian Senate, several misleading claims have surfaced concerning Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegations of sexual harassment against Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Senate president Godswill Akpabio falsely implied Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan accused him over a handshake, misrepresenting her real claims. A misleading tweet also misinterpreted a senator’s gesture, and there’s no record of Akpabio apologising. These claims downplay the issue and disregarded harassment concerns.
Claim
On March 14, 2025, a video posted by an X user, akomscopy, claimed that Akpabio had apologised to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The post’s caption reads, “Breaking News, Akpabio has apologised to Senator Natasha.”
So far, the post has generated 538.4K views, 482 reposts, 1.8 K likes, and 241 comments.
In reaction to the post, X user udeochuspr quoted, “This is not a proper apology. He is grandstanding as usual.”
In the same video, Senator Akpabio claimed the sexual harassment allegation by Senator Natasha was false and compared the situation to a scenario where US Vice-President Kamala Harris accused Barack Obama of sexual assault over a handshake.
Additionally, on March 14, 2025, a misleading claim by an X user, A.Ayofe (@abdullahayofel) / X, circulated suggesting that a senator tapped a male colleague to warn him against standing too close to Senator Natasha to avoid harassment accusations from her.
His caption to his post reads, “Who else observed that the man was too close to her until someone told him to space before she accused him?”
The post also generated significant engagements, including 179 reposts, 875 likes, 455.5k views and 539 comments.
NFM Checks
On the claim that Akpabio apologised to Senator Natasha, NFM thoroughly reviewed the video. It reveals no instance of Akpabio apologising to Akpoti-Uduaghan regarding the sexual harassment allegations. Akpabio has consistently denied the allegations, and the Senate’s ethics committee dismissed the claims on procedural grounds. Therefore, there’s no evidence Akpabio apologised to Natasha; hence, the claim is false.
Still on the existing video, at a timestamp of 2:50/4:23, Akpabio misrepresented Natasha’s allegations by comparing them to a hypothetical scenario where Kamala Harris accuses Barack Obama over a handshake. At 2:36, he further suggested that such accusations could discourage men from appointing women as deputy governors. Aside from the misogynistic inference, regarding women occupying political positions. the analogy implies that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegations were based on a trivial interaction, such as a handshake. However, this is a misrepresentation.
Furthermore, Senator Natasha did not accuse Akpabio of inappropriate behaviour during a handshake. Instead, she alleged that Akpabio made suggestive remarks, implying that she knew “What to do to make him happy.” This difference is crucial, as it underscores that Senator Natasha’s allegations against Akpabio were beyond mere physical gestures to inappropriate verbal comments.
Photo source: Facebook.
Additionally, the claim that a senator was tapped to step aside from Senator Natasha to avoid being accused is misleading. Upon reviewing the video in question at 0:26 seconds, it is evident that the senator’s gesture was simply to signal him to move so a colleague could pass. It was not to issue a warning about proximity.
Some social media users also pointed out the same, that the poster’s caption was wrong.
“This is very wrong…even if your sights are experiencing some challenges, you should still notice this man gave way to the person passing behind him. Your caption is wrong,”crispnigeria states.
“The other lady wanted to pass, hence the excuse. Why Mad people like you still dey Nigeria?” another X user, adesemoyedaniel, pointed out.
Conclusion
The dissemination of misleading information concerning serious allegations like sexual harassment undermines the gravity of such issues and can discourage victims from coming forward. It is important to approach such matters with accuracy and sensitivity, ensuring that all parties are represented fairly and that false narratives are not propagated.
Naija Feminists Media is committed to fighting gendered disinformation and misinformation that concerns women. Read more of our fact checks here.
