Bomb Blasts Will Stop After 2027 Elections — Akpabio Blames Opposition for Sponsoring Insecurity

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has claimed that opposition politicians are sponsoring bombings and insecurity across Nigeria to distract President Bola Tinubu from his reform agenda ahead of the 2027 elections.

Speaking on Tuesday at the inauguration of the Nigeria Revenue Service corporate headquarters in Abuja, Akpabio went further than any senior government official has gone in linking the country’s worsening security crisis to electoral politics.

“You are seeing insecurity today; it’s even increasing because the election is coming,” Akpabio said. “As soon as the election is over, watch out for the first two weeks; you won’t hear any bomb blasts because people are sponsoring to distract.”

He added: “They don’t know what else to do; they say this man is too good in many areas.”

The context

Akpabio’s remarks come at a particularly sensitive moment. Less than a week ago, a Nigerian Air Force airstrike killed over 100 civilians at Jilli market on the Borno-Yobe border. Plateau and Kaduna states suffered deadly attacks over the Easter weekend. The United States has issued a Level 3 travel advisory covering 23 Nigerian states and authorised the voluntary departure of non-emergency embassy staff from Abuja.

To suggest that this cascade of violence is primarily the work of opposition sponsors is a claim that requires evidence the Senate President did not provide. Boko Haram and ISWAP have been waging insurgency in the Northeast for over a decade. Banditry in the Northwest predates the current administration. The Jilli airstrike was carried out by the military itself.

The INEC defence

Akpabio also used the occasion to defend INEC chairman Joash Amupitan against calls for his resignation over a controversial social media post. Critics say the post, in which Amupitan reportedly wrote “Victory is Sure,” suggests partisan bias.

Akpabio dismissed the concern: “He didn’t say victory is sure for the APC. He did not say victory is sure for the PDP. He just said victory is sure.” He noted that the post predates Amupitan’s appointment as INEC chairman, adding that “when you are in a seat, you have to think of the entire country and all the populace.”

What this means

A Senate President accusing unnamed opponents of sponsoring terrorism is not ordinary political rhetoric. It either means the government has intelligence it is not sharing with the public, or it means the country’s third-highest official is prepared to politicise a genuine security crisis to shield the administration from scrutiny.

Either way, Nigerians caught in the crossfire deserve a more serious answer than election-season talking points. The families of the Jilli victims, the displaced communities in Plateau, the commuters kidnapped on Kaduna highways — none of them are waiting for 2027 to stop the violence.

Sources: Punch, Channels TV, TheCable, Daily Post, The Whistler