By Pascal Ibe

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike on Sunday said former Vice President Atiku Abubakar cannot be trusted politically.

Wike, who spoke through his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Public Communications and Social Media, Lere Olayinka, insisted that Atiku Abubakar, lied by claiming he picked former Delta Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate in the 2023 presidential election based on report of the committee set up by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to select its Vice Presidential candidate.

Olayinka, who reiterated that the FCT Minister was never keen about being Atiku’s running mate because of the enormous baggages he is carrying, described the statement by the media office of the two-time PDP presidential candidate as face-saving and “an attempt to use further lies to defend Atiku’s previous lies.”

Regarding this, a video of a former Senator who represented Kogi West district in the Nigerian Senate, Dino Melaye blasting over elections has surfaced on the X platform.

The X user, @Omoluabi1sq published the video on Monday showing where Melaye said that “FCT Minister Wike called him 19 times in 2hrs begging him to convince Atiku to pick him as the Vice Presidential Candidate.

“He is a liar, a pretentious human with cardiovascular ailment awaiting an urgent surgical operation.

“No sensible Nigerian should take the power monger seriously.

Many persons who commented on the video believed that this was a recent outburst by Melaye.

See some comments here and here.

Wike and Atiku have been in deep grudges since after the 2023 presidential election.

Verification

A simple keyword search on Google search indicated that the video first appeared online in April 2023.

Checks on the Sahara TV YouTube channel showed that the video which garnered over 15k views, was published in April 2023 and not recent.

Also, AIT online shared the same video of Melaye lashing out at Wike with a caption that reads, “Wike called me 19 times in 2 hours begging me to convince Atiku to make him his running mate”. Dino Melaye says in an exclusive interview with AIT.

In the video, Melaye went further to accuse Wike of being unprincipled and lacking integrity. He said that Wike’s push for a southern presidency was borne out of his desperation to become the vice-presidential candidate in the last elections.

Melaye said that he had evidence to prove that Wike was lobbying and begging him and others to convince Atiku to pick him as his running mate.

Check out a similar publication of this 2023 here.

Verdict

The video showing Dino Melaye blasting the current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, over an election, was in 2023 but recirculated as a recent clip. Therefore, it’s MISLEADING.