He alleged that Wike used to take money from his father’s church offerings, adding that if curses truly had power, the minister would have died long ago.
Human rights activist and former presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore has dismissed recent curses directed at him by certain “fake” clerics supporting the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, describing them as meaningless and fraudulent.
Speaking on the issue, Sowore questioned the effectiveness of curses pronounced by religious leaders and others, noting that if such curses were real, they would have affected Wike, whom he accused of a long history of theft dating back to his childhood.
He alleged that Wike used to take money from his father’s church offerings, adding that if curses truly had power, the minister would have died long ago.
Sowore made the remarks on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing journalists and his supporters.
He was responding to questions about clerics who publicly cursed him while praising Wike, and he reiterated his skepticism, insisting that the survival of Wike proves the ineffectiveness of such actions.
“Curse on who? If curses work, Wike would have died of curses,” Sowore said. “If curses actually worked, Wike would have evaporated from the surface of the earth long ago, especially since, by some accounts, he has been stealing from his father's church offering since childhood.”
He further dismissed the clerics involved as unserious, accusing them of exploiting religion for personal gain.
"Those are just jokers. In the first place, I want to know where they buy their fake bishop clothes in Abuja. That market should be banned,” he said.
Sowore said that religion has become a major tool for deception in Nigeria, alleging that many self-proclaimed religious leaders prey on vulnerable and desperate citizens.
“The truth is that religion has become part of how people are deceived in this country, and a lot of hungry people just use religion,” he said.
According to him, religious deception cuts across denominations and congregation sizes.
“And it is without exception. It doesn't matter whether you have a big church or a stadium. Anybody who is deceiving people in the name of religion, they are all the same,” Sowore added.
He maintained that he has no regard for religious leaders who, in his view, exploit faith for material or political purposes.
“I will never have any respect for any of them. Part of our biggest problem in this country is religion. They have used it to scam people for so long,” he said.
Sowore said that his own spirituality is independent of organized religion.
“I can tell you this because I work for God, but without a church, without religion,” he said.
Last Friday, SaharaReporters reported how Wike reportedly sponsored a staged protest and engaged a self-proclaimed cleric to verbally attack Sowore, as well as Nigerian lawyer and rights campaigner, Deji Adeyanju, following their criticisms of an alleged illegal land allocation in Maitama Extension, Abuja.
The allegations are linked to Wike’s decision to allocate a designated green area in Maitama Extension for the construction of luxury residential duplexes.
The allocation and proposed construction reportedly constitute a clear violation of the Abuja Master Plan, which expressly designates such areas as protected green zones meant for environmental preservation.
Sowore and Adeyanju had recently condemned the development, accusing the FCT administration of sacrificing Abuja’s ecological future for elite real estate interests.
However, their criticisms triggered a coordinated response from pro-Wike elements.
In a video obtained by SaharaReporters, an acclaimed Bishop was seen leading a group of protesters carrying placards in open support of Wike’s actions.
The protesters were filmed endorsing the controversial allocation of the protected green area and attacking Wike’s critics in aggressive and threatening language.
The self-styled Bishop, addressing the crowd and the camera, launched a personal attack on Sowore for calling a minister “brainless,” while lavishly praising Wike’s performance as FCT Minister.
“People like Sowore that are calling a minister a brainless man. Hence, Sowore, it won’t be well with you,” the man said in the video. “If you have eyes, you can clearly see that Wike has done a great job in Abuja. We pray that the Honourable Minister has done great work in Abuja.”
He prayed for President Bola Tinubu to retain Wike in office for eight years.