The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has revealed how he escaped what he described as an attempted blackmail involving a false claim that his son received $2 million in exchange for a land allocation.
Speaking during a media parley on Thursday, Wike said the allegation was fabricated and eventually collapsed after investigators established that his son was out of the country when the purported transaction allegedly took place.
According to the minister, the alleged blackmailer claimed to security operatives that he handed over the money to Wike’s son after the latter contacted his father about securing a plot of land.
“As I’m sitting as the Minister of FCT, somebody has done that, claiming that he knows my children, and that there was a day that he was with my son, and that my son called dad, ‘Is any land available?’ and I said yes. And that they gave him two million U.S. dollars. So look at the game,” Wike said.
He explained that the allegation came to his attention after a contact at the Presidential Villa informed him that documents containing the claims were being circulated.
“Somebody called me from the Villa that he has this thing going on. I said, ‘What is that?’ He said, ‘Oh, get this document for me.’ Somebody’s trying to do it. I said, ‘Okay, no problem.’ I sent my CSO: ‘Go and get this person.’ We got him arrested. He said that two million was given at night, that’s 9 p.m., 8 p.m., two million dollars,” he said.
Wike said investigations showed that his son had travelled out of Nigeria on a British Airways flight earlier that same day, making the allegation impossible.
“But see how, unknown to him, that day in the morning, my son travelled on British Airways. Meanwhile, the money was given at night. So we had to tell the police. They went to British Airways, everything,” he added.
The FCT minister also disclosed that he was advised by some individuals to quietly settle the matter to avoid public embarrassment but rejected the suggestion.
“One of them came to me and said, ‘Look, before it embarrasses you, why not settle it?’ I said, ‘Settle what? Settle what? This is cheap blackmail. I will not allow that.’ And we didn’t do it,” Wike said.
He said the incident demonstrated how senior government officials are often targeted with false allegations aimed at damaging their reputation or pressuring them into making concessions.
Drawing a comparison with allegations recently made against the President’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, Wike said such claims should be reported to security agencies rather than being tried in the media.
“There are people you target in government to do bad thing to the boss. This is chief of staff. This is the person who is in charge of finance and secretary to government. If you want to embarrass any government, this is the first target,” he said.
He added that anyone with credible evidence should present it to the appropriate security agencies.
“If it was indeed correct, eyeball to eyeball, go to the security agency. Look at my communications with him. Look at the phone I’ve been talking with him. These are what we have done,” Wike said.
His comments come amid an ongoing controversy involving allegations by Adeyemi against Gbajabiamila, which are currently the subject of investigations and legal proceedings.
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