Lere Olayinka, media aide to Nyesom Wike, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, says the Minister never had it in mind to open fire on Seun Okinbaloye, anchor of Channels Television’s Politics Today.
Wike has been under fire since he threatened to shoot Okinbaloye over his stance about the crisis rocking opposition parties.
The controversy stems from Wednesday’s edition of Politics Today, where Okinbaloye expressed concern about Nigeria’s political landscape ahead of the 2027 elections.
He noted that competitive politics strengthens democracy, warning against a situation where only one dominant party remains viable.
“What makes the race very interesting is when it’s competitive and not when only one party stands… If this hope is dashed, we are doomed democratically speaking,” the presenter said, referencing challenges within opposition parties.
Reacting during his monthly media chat, Wike accused the journalist of abandoning neutrality and taking sides.
“When I was watching Politics Today, Seun… If there was any way to break the screen, I would have shot him,” Wike said. “You are an interviewer; you are now telling them your own views… which means you have already taken a position.”
Human rights group, civil society organisations, political parties have all condemned the utterances of the minister.
But in a statement on Saturday, Olayinka said Wike spoke in a “hyperbolic context”, accusing those reacting of mischief.
Olayinka said Wike and Okinbaloye spoke on telephone over the comment on Saturday.
“The minister’s comment is now being used as an instrument of blackmail and propaganda by those whose intent is to misrepresent facts for their political gains”.
“The minister never meant that he will shoot Seun Okinbaloye. They even spoke on the phone today, and he (Okinbaloye) understood what the minister meant.
“What the minister meant, which he made clear during the media chat, was that he was angry seeing Okinbaloye, whom he holds in high esteem as a journalist, descending into the political arena by speaking as an interested party, instead of an interviewer.
“The statement made by the minister was in hyperbolic context, which was clearly without intent. It was primarily using exaggeration to make a point.
“Even after the Minister made the clarifications on the live television program, which had Chamberlain Uzor, Head of Channels Television’s Abuja Office as part of the interviewers, all the journalists who were interviewing him just laughed.
“Therefore, after the minister detailed explanations of what he meant, including saying on the live television program that he didn’t mean that he will carry gun and shoot the television anchor, it will become a clear hatchet job for any individual or group to pick the statement out of context and make any issue out of it.”