Former Rivers State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tonye Patrick Cole, has demanded ₦20 billion in damages and a public apology from Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), over alleged defamatory statements made during a television interview.
Gatekeepers News reports that in a letter dated October 8 and signed by his counsel, Jibrin Okutepa (SAN), Cole accused Wike of making “very damaging, malicious and unfounded defamatory statements” during a live broadcast of Politics Today on Channels Television on September 18, 2025.
According to the letter, Wike allegedly described Cole as “a thief” who “stole state resources” and claimed he sold Rivers State gas for $308 million.
Okutepa said the comments, broadcast nationally and internationally, inflicted “severe reputational damage, mental distress, and loss of goodwill” on his client.
“The words you used, and which you published and caused Channels Television to publish to millions of viewers both nationally and internationally, portrayed our client in their ordinary and natural meaning as a thief, a dishonest and fraudulent person, an economic saboteur, and a morally bankrupt man,” the letter stated.
Cole’s legal team noted that the interview remains publicly accessible on Channels Television’s YouTube channel, continuing to cause “ongoing reputational injury.”
The lawyers accused Wike of acting “recklessly and in bad faith,” saying the remarks were made “without any factual or legal basis whatsoever.”
They demanded that Wike retract the statements and issue a public apology—both in writing and through the same media outlets—within 14 days. The apology, they said, must include a live broadcast on Channels Television and publication in at least three national newspapers.
In addition to the apology, Cole is seeking ₦20 billion as compensation for the alleged defamation and a written undertaking from Wike to refrain from making further defamatory statements.
Okutepa warned that failure to comply would compel them to “resort to the use of weapons in legal armouries” to enforce their client’s rights.
In a separate letter, the legal team also demanded that Channels Television retract the interview, issue public apologies on air and in at least three national newspapers, remove the video from all online platforms, and pay ₦20 billion in damages for alleged reputational harm.
