The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has dismissed allegations made by U.S.-based commentator Jackson Ude, accusing him of being intoxicated during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Nigeria.
Ude had claimed that Wike was barred from the Presidential Villa after allegedly arriving drunk to receive Prime Minister Modi at Abuja’s Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.
In a statement by Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant to the FCT Minister on Public Communication and New Media, the allegations were described as baseless and “a deliberate attempt by Jackson Ude to mislead the public.”
Olayinka clarified that Wike officially welcomed Prime Minister Modi at the airport on Saturday as directed by the President. The minister also accompanied the visiting leader to his hotel and later returned to escort him to the Presidential Villa the next morning.
The statement further criticized Ude’s history of spreading misinformation, citing a past claim that former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello had fled Nigeria, which was disproven when Bello appeared at the EFCC office in Abuja in September.
Photographs accompanying the minister’s response show Wike alongside Prime Minister Modi at both the hotel and the Presidential Villa, directly contradicting Ude’s assertions.
Olayinka added that Wike’s office would no longer respond to “false and misleading narratives” propagated by Ude or similar sources.
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