(Nyesom Wike. Photo Credit: Guardian Nigeria News)
The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has disclosed how he narrowly escaped falling victim to a blackmail plot while serving as a minister, involving a man who falsely claimed to have paid his son $2m in exchange for a land allocation.
Speaking during a media parley on Thursday, Wike said the alleged blackmailer told the Department of State Services that he handed his son the money at night, only for records to show his son was out of the country at the time.
He recounted that while serving as minister of the FCT, someone falsely claimed to know his children, alleging that he was once with his son when the son called him to ask if any land was available, to which he supposedly said yes, and that the man was subsequently given two million US dollars, describing the scheme as a deliberate game.
He narrated how the plot came to light after a contact at the Presidential Villa alerted him that someone was circulating the claims, recalling that he was informed about the situation, asked for the details, and was told the person wanted a certain document, after which he instructed his CSO to have the individual brought in.
He said the man claimed the two million dollars was given at night, around 8pm or 9pm.
Wike said the timeline fell apart once investigators established that his son had left Nigeria on a British Airways flight that same morning, hours before the alleged night-time payment was said to have occurred, adding that the matter was reported to the police, who verified the details with the airline.
He said he was later approached by someone urging him to quietly settle the matter to avoid embarrassment, an offer he flatly rejected, insisting there was nothing to settle and describing it as cheap blackmail that he would not tolerate.
Wike cited the episode to argue that public officials are routine targets for fabricated allegations designed to force concessions or damage reputations, drawing a comparison with the allegations made by Adeyemi against the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila.
He said certain individuals in government are deliberately targeted to tarnish the image of their superiors, noting that as Chief of Staff and someone overseeing finance and government secretarial functions, Gbajabiamila would naturally be a prime target for anyone seeking to embarrass the government.
He argued that Adeyemi’s decision to make the allegations publicly while avoiding security agencies contrasted with how such matters should ordinarily be resolved, maintaining that if the claims were genuine, the appropriate step would have been to approach security agencies directly, and pointed to his own communications and phone records with the individual as evidence of how such matters should be handled.
The dispute began after Adeyemi held a press conference on June 25, accusing Gbajabiamila of demanding 48 per cent of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council’s alleged N27.4bn take-off grant, as well as receiving N400m through proxies linked to appointments in the agency.
The Presidency maintains that PFIPC is fictitious, though it had secured office space at the federal secretariat, opened CBN accounts, and received a N1.3bn allocation in the 2026 Appropriation Act. Tinubu has ordered the ICPC to investigate within 30 days.
Adeyemi is separately standing trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on forgery charges, including forging an appointment letter bearing Gbajabiamila’s signature.
He is due back in court on July 27.
Gbajabiamila’s lawyers have since threatened him with a N10bn defamation suit, dismissing his allegations as false and gravely defamatory.
The Presidency has backed Gbajabiamila, with Tinubu passing a vote of confidence on him, but rights groups, including the CDHR and lawyer Femi Falana, have called for an independent probe of both men.
