Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has denied insinuations that the political strategy deployed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) G5 during the 2023 presidential election amounted to manipulation of the outcome in Rivers State.
Wike said no evidence was tendered at the tribunal to support claims that the Labour Party (LP) won the state in the election.
He spoke after an inspection tour of ongoing projects in the Federal Capital Territory, where he also disclosed that a fresh political strategy had been put in place ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Wike explained that the PDP G5 bloc, of which he was a member, had deployed a strategy during the 2023 presidential election aimed at denying former Vice President Atiku Abubakar votes in the South-South region.
According to him, Atiku, rather than Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, was considered the major political threat to the G5 at the time.
“Our strategy was that, listen, you vote, make sure that you vote for Obi to win, in order to deny Atiku the votes,” he said.
Wike said the South-South was traditionally a PDP stronghold and that if the region had voted strictly along party lines, Atiku would have benefited from the bloc’s strength.
He, however, rejected claims that the strategy amounted to manipulation of the election outcome in Rivers State.
“Did anybody tender any result from Rivers State that, ‘Look, this is the result, we won’? Did anybody? It’s unfair. It’s unfortunate there’s nothing we can do,” he said.
The minister said every political camp had its own strategy during the election, adding that such strategies were not necessarily made public.
“We have our strategy in this election, and whether you like it or not, it’s not for us to let the cat out of the bag,” he said.
Wike further explained that his political opposition at the time was Atiku, not Obi, arguing that the perception of Obi’s strength was largely driven by social media rather than the actual distribution of votes.
“When you are strategizing to win an election, you look at a lot of factors: who is my threat? If this is my threat, this is a lesser threat, and I know what to do so as to make sure that the vote of my major threat does not increase.
“You cannot rig an election where you are not popular. You cannot. If you try that, then you see what happens; people will resist it,” he said.
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