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Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has dismissed allegations that he manipulated the 2023 presidential election in Rivers State and other parts of the South-South to give President Bola Tinubu an advantage over Labour Party candidate Peter Obi.

Wike made the clarification on Wednesday while speaking to journalists in Abuja, describing the allegations as being based on a false narrative that was largely circulated on social media.

The FCT minister had earlier caused controversy during an appearance on TVC’s Journalists’ Hangout, where he disclosed that the G5 governors adopted a political strategy that contributed to Obi securing votes in parts of the South-South.

The remarks were interpreted by some opposition politicians and commentators as an admission that the election had been manipulated.

Wike, however, rejected that interpretation, explaining that the G5 strategy was designed to weaken the influence of Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar rather than manipulate the election.

Reacting to allegations that he personally altered election results in favour of Tinubu, Wike questioned how an individual could manipulate 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 asked.

He also dismissed the suggestion that social media narratives could reliably determine the outcome of a nationwide election.

“I’ve always said social media does not win elections. You have about 176,000 polling units, and probably you have seen 300 polling units and then you rush to the conclusion that so-and-so has won,” he said.

According to Wike, the opposition was also unable to establish before the courts that the election results recorded in Rivers State had been manipulated.

“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,” he said.

Wike maintained that the political strategy achieved its intended objective, insisting that discussions about the 2023 presidential election should be guided by the actual results rather than claims circulating on social media.

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