Two chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who are plainly averse to Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State made posts on Saturday, March 4, 2023, claiming that the Nigerian Army accused the aggrieved PDP governor (Wike) of trying to compromise them with huge financial inducements.
TOP MEDIA reports that the two PDP stalwarts, Senator Dino Melaye and Reno Omokri, posted a video on their known Twitter/YouTube pages to support their claim. Melaye and Omokri have a combined figure of 3.6 million Twitter followers.
While Melaye’s tweet has had over 44, 000 views and 1,400+ retweets, diaspora-based Omokri’s YouTube video has garnered more than 3,400 views as of the time of publishing this report.
CLAIM: Omokri captioned the video on his official YouTube page: “Nigerian Army Says Wike Tried To Use Them To Rig Elections Against Obi, Others”. Speaking in the video was then-Deputy Director of the Army Public Relations, Colonel Aminu Iliyasu.
BACKGROUND
Bola Ahmed Tinubu was last Wednesday declared the winner of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential elections.
Tinubu, 70, represents the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), which received close to 8.8 million votes – about 36.6% of the total, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu.
He defeated former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and a third leading candidate Peter Obi, who gained popularity among young people with his lesser-known Labour Party.
Governor Wike was believed to have been instrumental to Tinubu’s emergence as president-elect.
CHECKS
It is an old video; precisely from 2019 when the 6 Division of the Nigerian Army alleged that Governor Wike attempted to induce its officers financially during the Presidential and National Assembly polls of that year.
During a press briefing in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, which was televised live on national television, the army played an audio purported to be Governor Wike’s voice allegedly trying to compromise the officers.
The then-Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Col. Iliyasu, also claimed that some people who were paraded before the public at the briefing were arrested for their alleged involvement in election malpractice.
But the suspects who included some officials of the state government denied the allegations and faulted the army for parading them as criminals before the public.
Governor Wike has also denied the allegation of financial inducement by the 6 Division spokesperson, describing it as baseless.
VERDICT
Messrs Omokri and Melaye misinformed the public with their claim as the video in question was old and totally unconnected with the just-concluded 2023 presidential and National Assembly elections.
