What The Minister Meant- Wike’s Aide Explains “Would Have Shot Him” Comment At Okinbaloye

What The Minister Meant- Wike’s Aide Explains “Would Have Shot Him” Comment At Okinbaloye

Lere Olayinka, the media aide to Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike has clarified the controversial remark credited to the Minister in which he said he “would have shot him” while reacting to a television interview involving Seun Okinbaloye, insisting the comment was purely figurative and taken out of context.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Olayinka said the Minister’s words were expressed in a hyperbolic manner to convey displeasure, not a literal threat.

He explained that Wike had reacted emotionally after watching what he described as a departure from professional journalism.

“I was surprised yesterday when I was watching politics today. If there’s anyway to break the screen, I would have shot him. This is not the journalism I’ve seen people do,” the Minister had said during the media engagement, a remark that quickly drew public attention.

Clarifying the statement, Olayinka said the Minister “never meant that he will shoot Seun Okinbaloye,” adding that both men had since spoken directly. “They even spoke on phone today, and he (Okinbaloye) understood what the minister meant,” he claimed.

The aide disclosed that Wike’s frustration stemmed from his perception that Okinbaloye, whom he holds “in high esteem as a journalist,” appeared to take on the role of a participant rather than that of an impartial interviewer.

“What the minister meant, which he made clear during the media chat, was that he was angry seeing Okinbaloye… descending into the political arena by speaking as an interested party, instead of an interviewer,” Olayinka insisted.

He stressed that the statement was “in hyperbolic context, which was clearly without intent,” noting that it was “primarily using exaggeration to make a point.”

Olayinka further stated that the Minister had already clarified his position during the live programme, including explicitly noting that he did not mean he would “carry gun and shoot the television anchor.”

He added that the journalists present, including senior editorial figures, responded with laughter after the clarification.

The aide warned against what he described as deliberate misrepresentation of the Minister’s comments, urging the public to disregard attempts to weaponise the remark for political ends.

“After the Minister’s detailed explanations of what he meant… it will become a clear hatchet job for any individual or group to pick the statement out of context and make any issue out of it,” he further declared.

“The public is therefore urged to discontenance the use of the comment as instrument of blackmail and propaganda by those whose intent is to misrepresent facts for their political gains,” he urged.