Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s media team has condemned Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike for what it termed as a reckless statement thrown at Channels Television presenter Seun Okinbaloye, seeking a public apology.
The controversy erupted after Wike made remarks during a media chat on Friday in response to Okinbaloye’s comments on Thursday’s Politics Today, which discussed the African Democratic Congress’ leadership crisis and its implications for opposition politics ahead of the 2027 elections.
Okinbaloye expressed fears about the likelihood of a one-party state, which Wike criticized as improper for a journalist.
While the minister later stressed that he was not calling for physical harm, he insisted that the anchor’s statement went too far.
The Atiku Media Office, in a statement issued on Saturday in Abuja by its leader, Paul Ibe, said the minister’s comment reflected what it called a rising intolerance for dissent under President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
The statement condemned the remark as irresponsible and harmful, saying that such rhetoric from a serving public official jeopardizes press freedom and undermines democratic norms.
“For a serving minister of the Federal Republic to publicly declare on live television that he wished to shoot a journalist over a professional opinion is not just reckless.
“It is a chilling signal of how far this government has descended into intolerance, lawlessness, and naked abuse of power,” the statement said.
The media office emphasized that the comment should not be dismissed as a joke or casual banter, claiming that it constituted a direct threat against a journalist performing his professional duties.
It stated that when public officials use harsh rhetoric toward members of the media, it sends a dangerous message about the country’s democracy.
The statement went on to say that the episode is part of a larger pattern in which criticism is increasingly handled with hostility and intimidation.
“What crime did Mr. Okinbaloye commit? He dared to warn against the creeping danger of a one-party state. For this, a minister of the republic responded not with reason but with a threat of violence,” the statement said.
The Atiku Media Office said that normalising such threats might undermine democratic institutions and increase attacks on press freedom.
It thus asked for an urgent and unconditional apology from Wike to Okinbaloye and the Nigerian media community, while also calling on the Tinubu administration to officially condemn the minister’s words and ensure the safety of journalists across the country.
