Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike has criticised activist and African Action Congress Presidential Candidate Omoyele Sowore over his remarks describing President Bola Tinubu as a “criminal.”
In a tweet on August 25, Sowore referred to a video of Tinubu during his visit to Brazil, in which the President claimed there was no corruption in Nigeria. “This criminal @officialpbat actually went to Brazil to state that there is no more corruption under his regime in Nigeria. What audacity to lie shamelessly!” the tweet read.
Following the post, the Department of State Services filed criminal charges against Sowore for defamation, alleging he used false statements in violation of Nigeria’s Cybercrimes and Terrorism Prevention laws. The agency also requested that social media platforms X and Meta remove the tweet, citing threats to national security and public order. Sowore refused to delete the tweet, accusing the DSS of attempting to silence dissent and describing their actions as “despicable.”
Speaking during the flag-off of the construction of Arterial Road N1 in Wuye on Thursday, September 18, Wike said Sowore was “lucky” that Tinubu respected the rule of law. “This is a country where somebody on social media will say Mr President is a criminal; nothing will happen. You say all kinds of things you want to say, but nothing will happen. No matter how you see people criticise Trump, have you ever seen any American citizen on social media, or in the public, say our President is a criminal? Have you heard that? But here, anybody can wake up in the morning and abuse the President, and we are happy. You are lucky you have a President who believes in the rule of law. You are lucky. Continue to be lucky. There are those you will meet that you won’t be lucky again,” Wike said.
“The SSS called me that people said they will demonstrate, that we are paying attention to roads, we are not paying attention to health. I called the Director, listened, demonstration is allowed everywhere. Nobody will blackmail me, nobody will stop me from doing what I think is right, and do it at the right time. The people who now say, look, they are being owed allowances, fine. We lost our Head of Service; we just appointed an acting Head of Service. And I said, okay, go and check, how much are they talking about? They said oh, they’ve not employed doctors. I said chairman Civil Service Commission they said they’ve gotten a waiver, fine. What’s my own? Go and employ them. I am not a doctor, I’ve never thought to be a doctor, go ahead and employ them. They say oh, we’re not talking about improving health facilities. In the 2025 budget, the Capital budget for health alone, we put N25bn. Ask them, when did you get our budget? We got our budget July. We got our budget in July from the National Assembly. So, each time you see people, they won’t ask questions,” he said.
Wike also warned against politicising the FCT Civil Service. “If you want to enter political party A, you’re free to enter political party A and face me when the time comes. Don’t use Civil Service to play politics, no. If the Permanent Secretary of the Treasury brings the bill now, that this is what the allowances are, what’s my own? Why would I hold it? They will pay. But know that everything has a procedure. But to tell me you will demonstrate, you will block the road, I told the Director of SSS, allow them to demonstrate, but nobody can stop me from holding this occasion today, not one,” he added.
