President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, did not collapse or rushed to the hospital on Thursday, December 14, 2023 in the course of a Colloquium to mark his 61st birthday anniversary in Abuja, his Special Adviser on Media, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, has said.
In a rebuttal issued on Friday morning, Eyiboh said that the rumours and reports about Akpabio collapsing and being rushed to a hospital were “fictionalised extensions” of the Senate President’s personal admission to a circle of friends of being tired at the end of the programme.
Eyiboh said: “The rumours which have come to our notice through word of mouth from concerned and patriotic stakeholders have been fanned by some social media news channels with notoriety for the dissemination of phony newsflashes.
“It was especially disconcerting that the conjectures on the wellbeing of the Senate President came after he was celebrated by the crème-de-crème of the nation’s leadership across all sectors at the Colloquium that was focused on defining a legislative agenda for national development.”
According to the Senate President’s spokesman, “Senator Akpabio spoke on his feet for more than 30 minutes as he gave the expose` of his trajectory in a way as never before.
“As the programme ended and President Bola Tinubu left the Transcorp Hotel venue, Senator Akpabio’s expression to some of those around him that he was tired was escalated to a fainting spell or collapse.
“Some more adventurous purveyors of untruth in their thrilling escapade of fiction even claimed that he is presently hospitalized and in a critical condition in the National Hospital, Abuja.
“This is wholly untrue and I declare firmly that besides saying he was exhausted in the hearing of those around him that he was certainly not rushed in a stretcher to the national hospital or indisposed.”