EXCLUSIVE: Despite Denial, Video Shows Wike Boycotted Council Of State Meeting, Sent Minister Of State Amid Rift With Tinubu

Following SaharaReporters’ exclusive report on Thursday that the appointment of Professor Joash Amupitan (SAN) as National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has deepened the growing rift between Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Wike’s camp has dismissed the claims.

On Thursday, the Council of State unanimously approved Amupitan’s appointment as INEC Chairman. He hails from Kogi State and succeeds Professor Mahmood Yakubu, whose 10-year tenure recently ended.

In Thursday’s report, SaharaReporters exposed how Amupitan’s appointment further exposed the fragile alliance within the Tinubu administration, citing insider accounts that Wike boycotted the Council of State meeting in protest and delegated the Minister of State for the FCT, Mariya Mahmoud Bunkure, to represent him.

SaharaReporters reported that Wike had pushed hard for Justice Abdullahi Muhammad Liman, a justice of the Court of Appeal, to be appointed as INEC Chairman instead of Tinubu’s choice, Amupitan.

However, Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication and Social Media to the FCT Minister, denied the report in a Facebook post, insisting that Wike is not a member of the Council of State and therefore could not have boycotted its meeting, despite credible sources confirming to SaharaReporters that Wike was expected to attend but chose to send Bunkure in his place.

“Shameless Sowore does not even know that the FCT Minister is not a member of the Council of State. Or how do you boycott meeting of an organization you don't belong to?” Olayinka wrote.

However, SaharaReporters has obtained a video from the flag-off ceremony for the construction of collector and arterial roads within Katampe District, which confirms that Wike instructed Bunkure to leave the venue to attend the Council of State meeting.

The footage shows that Bunkure was present at the event before receiving Wike’s directive to depart for the meeting, after which Wike arrived at the venue.

In the video, following a speech by Nancy Nathan, Acting Head of Service of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), the event’s compère, veteran broadcaster Eugenia Abu, can be heard announcing that Bunkure had to leave immediately after Wike directed her to proceed to the Council of State meeting at the State House.

“Some of you who arrived earlier would have seen the honourable Minister of State in situ (in position), but the honourable minister (Wike) has requested her to attend the Council of State meeting, and in order for her not to be late, this is why she departed quite early before the minister (Wike) arrived,” Abu said.

WATCH: Wike Sent His Deputy, FCT Minister of State Mariya Mahmoud, to Attend Council Meeting His Spokesperson Lied About and Claimed He Wasn’t Supposed to Be At pic.twitter.com/xdAHO6Vlba

— Sahara Reporters (@SaharaReporters) October 10, 2025

Background

SaharaReporters reported on Thursday night that Wike was also believed to have contacted several former Nigerian Heads of State, urging them to boycott the Council of State meeting.

Wike’s political troubles began shortly after human rights activist Omoyele Sowore exposed his undisclosed real estate assets in Florida, United States. The revelations sent shockwaves through his family and political network.

Before the exposé, Wike had just returned from a medical trip to the United Kingdom, where he was said to have undergone treatment for a heart infection. Reinvigorated and confrontational upon his return, he reignited his long-running feud with Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, his former ally and political protégé, after orchestrating the move that kept Fubara out of office for six months.

However, Wike’s renewed confidence soon crumbled. During one of his public tirades, he threatened Sowore for calling President Tinubu “a criminal,” a remark Sowore made on social media in response to Tinubu’s infamous statement in Brazil that there was “no corruption in Nigeria.”

Wike’s arrogant claim that Sowore was “lucky Tinubu believes in the rule of law” and would one day encounter someone who did not only inflamed the activist’s resolve.

The confrontation prompted Sowore to release damning evidence of Wike’s corruptly acquired foreign and hidden local assets, igniting widespread outrage and drawing the attention of the Presidency itself.

In the aftermath, Tinubu’s trusted advisers began to reassess Wike’s role in government, concluding that he had become too erratic and politically toxic to be trusted with sensitive national matters.

SaharaReporters learnt that Wike secured clearances for Justice Liman through several security agencies, confident that Tinubu would approve.

But following mounting skepticism within the Presidency, Liman’s candidacy was quietly dropped. SaharaReporters learnt that Liman and Wike are so close that he once blocked security agencies from searching his house in 2016.

Tinubu instead appointed Amupitan, a lawyer and legal scholar from the University of Jos.

Tinubu is said to have told close aides that Wike was “too unstable and untrustworthy” to influence the leadership of Nigeria’s electoral body.

The breakdown of trust soon extended to media control and censorship. After Governor Fubara’s reinstatement, Tinubu reportedly ordered Wike to suspend his monthly media briefings, arguing that his combative tone was damaging the administration’s image.

Furious, Wike appealed to Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, warning that silencing him would only “make Sowore too powerful.”

The exchange reflected the degree to which Sowore’s exposés had undermined Wike’s standing within the Presidency.

Amid the turmoil, Wike allegedly approached the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to amend his asset declaration, seeking to include the properties exposed in Florida and elsewhere.

But officials reportedly told him that the original documents had been forwarded to the EFCC, leaving him politically vulnerable and deeply unsettled and betrayed.

His growing frustration culminated in Thursday’s Council of State meeting, where most former Heads of State conspicuously boycotted the session.

Presidency insiders suggest Wike played a role in orchestrating the boycott to demonstrate his displeasure with the appointment of Amupitan.

According to sources, the meeting’s agenda initially made no mention of an INEC appointment, but Tinubu allegedly sprung a surprise by asking the Governor of Kogi State, Ahmed Ododo, to present Amupitan for confirmation.

Caught off guard, attendees had no choice but to endorse the appointment.