Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has rejected allegations that he manipulated the 2023 presidential election in the South-South in favour of President Bola Tinubu and against Labour Party candidate Peter Obi.
Wike made the clarification in Abuja on Wednesday, describing the allegation as a narrative largely driven by social media. (News Agency of Nigeria)
The controversy followed remarks Wike made during a recent television interview, in which he explained that the G5 governors had adopted a political strategy aimed at limiting former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s support in the South-South during the 2023 election.
Wike said the group viewed Atiku, who was the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate at the time, as the bigger political threat because of the PDP’s traditional strength in the region.
According to him, the strategy involved allowing Obi to secure votes in some areas rather than allowing those votes to go to Atiku.
“Our strategy was to make sure that you vote for Obi to win in order to deny Atiku the votes,” Wike said.
He strongly denied claims that this amounted to altering election results or personally rigging the election.
Wike questioned how one individual could manipulate results across thousands of polling units and said claims based largely on social media observations could not establish the overall outcome of an election.
He also pointed to the legal challenges that followed the 2023 election, asking whether opposition parties had presented alternative Rivers State results before the tribunal to substantiate claims that Obi won the state.
The minister said the G5’s calculations were based on the political strength of the parties involved and their assessment of the major threat to their interests at the time.
Wike had previously explained that the group deliberately allowed Obi to gain votes in Edo and Cross River because the PDP was particularly strong in those states and the G5 wanted to prevent Atiku from benefiting from that support.
He maintained that Obi was not considered the main threat to the G5’s political interests during the 2023 presidential contest.
Wike also argued that social media popularity should not be confused with actual electoral strength, noting that Nigeria has a large number of polling units across the country.
The minister insisted that electoral strategies and political campaigning were different from manipulating results, and urged commentators to examine verified election records rather than relying solely on online discussions.
His comments have again drawn attention to the role played by the G5 governors during the 2023 presidential election and their opposition to Atiku’s candidacy.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
