Consequences of a Life Built on Scams Catching Up with Sowore, Wike’s Aide Declares

Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, has accused self-styled activist and SaharaReporters publisher Omoyele Sowore of being haunted by his own fraudulent past.

Olayinka dismissed Sowore’s claims that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Wike plotted to assassinate him as “just another manipulative tactic” used to sustain his ongoing deception.

In a statement released on Saturday, Olayinka urged Sowore to confront his pending criminal trial and to provide evidence backing his baseless allegations, including any court judgment convicting President Tinubu.

Olayinka highlighted Sowore’s controversial record, noting that “a person who took over $3 million in 2019 to broker the African Action Congress’s Rivers State governorship ticket—only to be suspended by the party for corruption—undoubtedly has many victims chasing him for justice.”

He further recounted accusations against Sowore, such as the 2020 claim by Oluwatosin Adeniji that Sowore fraudulently obtained an #EndSARS grant in her name without her consent.

Between 2016 and 2019, Sowore reportedly received $1.3 million from the MacArthur Foundation and additional millions from other foreign donors purportedly to train Nigerian journalists—a promise he never fulfilled.

Known for exploiting SaharaReporters as a tool for blackmail and extortion while neglecting his staff’s welfare, Sowore’s true threats, according to Olayinka, come from those he has deceived, not from President Tinubu or Minister Wike.

Olayinka added that Sowore’s recent outbursts against Wike are “the desperate final acts of a man running out of options.” He accused Sowore of trying to cast himself as a victim to deflect from the serious charges he faces.

Responding to Sowore’s criticisms about property ownership in the United States, Olayinka questioned, “Did the Minister deny that his wife owns property in the US? Is it a crime to inherit or buy property there? Is that Sowore’s defense for spreading lies and accusing the President of criminality?”

Olayinka also challenged Sowore’s silence on the violence in Rivers State in 2019, allegedly linked to the forced imposition of the candidate Sowore was paid to promote.

He concluded, “Sowore may try to hide behind his ‘activist’ persona, but his fraudulent ways will soon catch up with him.”