The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has narrated how travel records allegedly helped him uncover a blackmail attempt involving a false claim that his son received $2 million to facilitate a land allocation.
Wike said the man behind the allegation claimed he paid the money to his son at night, after the latter supposedly contacted him about land availability in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The minister, who spoke during a media parley on Thursday, said the claim later collapsed after investigators established that his son had travelled out of Nigeria several hours before the alleged payment.
According to him, the case illustrated how public officials could be targeted with fabricated allegations intended to damage their reputations or compel them to make concessions.
Wike said the suspect claimed to know his children and alleged that one of his sons had called him to inquire about available 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.
The minister explained that he first became aware of the allegation after receiving a telephone call from an unnamed contact at the Presidential Villa.
He said the caller informed him that documents containing the allegations were being circulated and advised him to investigate the matter.
“Somebody called me from the Villa that he has this thing going on. I said, ‘What is that?’ He said, ‘Oh, you 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 added.
Travel Records Contradict Allegation
Wike said investigators discovered a major contradiction in the suspect’s account after checking his son’s travel records.
According to the former Rivers State governor, his son had boarded a British Airways flight and left Nigeria in the morning of the same day the man claimed to have handed him the money at night.
“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 said.
He said the airline’s records provided evidence that his son could not have been physically present to receive the alleged payment at the time stated by the accuser.
The FCT minister further disclosed that he was later advised to resolve the matter privately to prevent the allegations from becoming embarrassing.
He said he rejected the proposal because agreeing to a settlement could lend credibility to what he described as a baseless accusation.
“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 maintained that public officials must be prepared to confront false allegations rather than submit to pressure from individuals seeking money or other concessions through blackmail.
Wike argued that fabricated claims had become a weapon against political officeholders, warning that such allegations could spread rapidly and cause reputational damage if not promptly challenged with verifiable evidence.
