Wike Denies Rigging 2023 Election for Tinubu, Explains G5 Strategy

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has rejected allegations that he rigged the 2023 presidential election in the South-South in favour of President Bola Tinubu against Labour Party candidate Peter Obi.

Wike, speaking with journalists in Abuja on Wednesday, described the allegation as a “baseless narrative propagated primarily on social media”. He said the outcome in the region reflected a political strategy adopted by the G5 governors rather than manipulation of election results.

The controversy followed comments Wike made during an interview on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout, where he said the G5 had strategically allowed Peter Obi to win votes in parts of the South-South to prevent Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar from gaining a stronger advantage in the region.

Critics and opposition figures interpreted the comments as an admission of electoral manipulation. Wike, however, rejected that interpretation and questioned how he could have personally altered results across thousands of polling units.

“People who don’t understand, how can they say I rigged the election? How would I have done it? So, I just took the result sheets, wrote it, and gave it to INEC?” he said.

Wike also dismissed the idea that social media trends could be used to determine election outcomes, pointing to the large number of polling units across the country. He said political conclusions should be based on verified results rather than limited observations or online projections.

The minister said the G5’s calculations were focused primarily on Atiku, whom he described as the major political threat to the group at the time. According to Wike, directing votes towards Obi in certain areas was intended to split the opposition vote and reduce Atiku’s advantage in the South-South, traditionally a strong PDP region.

“We felt that Atiku was more of a factor in that election than Obi. So our strategy was that, make sure that you vote for Obi to win in order to deny Atiku the votes,” Wike said.

Wike also argued that the strategy did not amount to rigging and maintained that an election could not simply be manipulated in areas where a candidate lacked genuine support. He said opposition parties had the opportunity to challenge the election results in court but questioned whether they produced evidence from Rivers State showing that their candidate had actually won.