An exclusive audio of a telephone conversation between Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and his counterpart in Ekiti State, Governor Ayodele Fayose, in which both men discussed Wike’s sharp operations during the 10th December, 2016 rerun of legislative elections in Rivers State has been exposed.
In the leaked telephone conversation, the two governors were heard having an excited conversation about how Mr. Wike stormed a collation center during the election.
The tone of the exchanges makes it clear that Mr. Wike’s aim was to manipulate the results of the elections in favor of his candidates. In a tone that shows how he outmanouvred the Nigerian Army, Wike declares in the conversation that, “Nigerian Army does not exist again.”
Earlier in the telephone conversation leak, Wike was heard discussing the bribe he gave to unscrupulous officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who consented to help rig the elections in the state.
However, Governor Wike’s aides initially denied the authenticity of the scandalous audiotape. However, as it became undeniable that the voice belonged to him, the governor sought to deflect public attention by setting up a panel ostensibly to probe the cause, source and nature of widespread violence that marked the national and state legislative elections in the state.
Wike also set up his probe after the Nigerian police had composed a panel charged with examining issues arising from the rerun elections. Those issues include establishing the authenticity or otherwise of leaked telephone conversations in which the governor discussed his payment to electoral officials.
The latest leaked audio of a conversation that came in the wake of the election demonstrates the personal and political closeness between Governors Fayose and Wike
The new leaked conversation went thus:
Wike: Ayodele my son!
Fayose: You think I’m Nigerian Army member?
Wike: Nigerian Army does not exist again now!
Fayose: Ah, Wike, you tried!
Wike: (Laughter) Ha! Ha! Ha….!
Fayose: Everybody has been calling me! Wike, you are the man! You faced the whole country’s military threat…
Wike: (Laughter)
Fayose: They were shooting when you went o..!
Wike: My brother, you have to fight to the last o…! Kill everybody you can kill… Everybody you can kill!
Fayose: Ah! You’re the man of the year! This one is too much for one person! Everyone couldn’t know the way forward!
Wike: (Laughter)
Fayose: You went to collating centre!
Wike: Yes, I had to stop there!
Fayose: Eh! The video is all over now! See the way they’re shooting!
Wike: (Laughter)
Fayose: All over! Aaaargh! Congrats!
Wike: My brother, thank god for everything. It is god.
Fayose: I’m sure we are still going to go court against them for the other one.
Wike: Of course. Of course! We’ll fight it out!
Fayose: You’ve done well for all of us!
Wike: We thank god my brother!
Fayose: I’ll call you later.
Wike: Okay.
In a swift response, Gov. Fasyose described as shameful and irresponsible the leak of phone conversation to media by the DSS.
The Ekiti State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose accused the Department of State Service (DSS) of recording telephone conversations of Nigerians perceived as critical of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) government, and editing the conversations and leaking same to news media, which has now become the official propaganda platform of the federal government.
Governor Fayose, who said he was not bothered by the new sinister antic of the federal government, added that; “Rather than sitting down and be monitoring peoples phones, the federal government should provide food for Nigerians and save the lives of those that are being killed in Southern Kaduna and other places.”
The governor, who reacted to his telephone conversation with Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike that was published by Sahara Reporters today, through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said; “If the President and his hatchet men in the DSS, EFCC and other federal government agencies do not know what to do other than to record phone conversations of their perceived opposition political foes, they should just resign and save the country from this harrowing experience.”
He said it was obviously that they were being threatened by the complimentary comments of notable Nigerians like Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi and others about him because those comments negate the cabal’s evil intentions.
The governor described the DSS recording telephone conversations of Nigerians and leaking them to Sahara Reporters to publish as the height of the political rascality, manipulation, oppression, suppression and irresponsibility by agents of the federal government that are trying so hard to cover up the crimes they perpetrated against the people of Rivers State.
“They should even go beyond taping of my lines and come to live with me in Ekiti government house so that they can do per seconds live recordings of whatever I say because in the year 2017, by the grace of God, I will still say more without apology,” he said.
Governor Fayose said for the first time since democracy returned to the country in 1999, Nigerians were celebrating Christmas and new year with hunger and sufferings beyond measure.
“Nigerians are asking for food on their tables, they want employments, they want security, not recording of people’s phone conversations and handing it to a road side online platform to publish.
“Unemployment and job loss are increasing at a very alarming rate while the electoral process is daily being bastardised.
“Rather than tackling hunger and the country’s economic woes, they have embarked on diversionary tactics with irrelevant stories of Governors Wike and Fayose’s phone conversations, governors who do not bear arms and have no control over any security apparatus,” the governor said.
He said: “I knew it before now that telephone conversations of prominent Nigerians, especially National Assembly members and opposition figures are being monitored, but I have remained unperturbed in my resolve to play my roles in rescuing Nigeria from the jaws of tyranny, which the present APC federal government represents.”
While maintaining that the APC led federal government do not respect the laws of the country, Governor Fayose said; “They know that what they are doing is illegal and clear contravention of Section 37 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which provides that; ‘The privacy of citizens, their homes, correspondence, telephone conversations and telegraphic communications is hereby guaranteed and protected.’
“However, because they are criminally minded and are running a tyrannical government, using the DSS, EFCC and other agencies, one is not surprised at the current development.
He encourage Nigerians not to eep silent in the face of this tyranny, saying; “it will get to everybody one day, some day.”
He said; “Like I said before, their style has become so predictable. Whenever Nigerians cry of the pains and sufferings they are going through, they will come with flimsy stories like; “20 Chibok girls found,” “$1 billion found in Mr A, B or C bedroom,” “Boko Haram technically defeated,” “We have captured Sambisa forest,” “Governors Wike and Fayose’s phone conversations leaked,” etc just to divert attention.
“Regrettably, Governors Wike and Fayose that bear no arm remain their headache while their agents that bear arms like guns, armoured tanks and fighter jets etc, using them against Nigerians have not been called to question.
“Going by the barrage of pains being inflicted on Nigerians by his cluelessness, if I will give the President a candid advise, I will tell him to resign because he has failed Nigerians, whose votes he obtained by deception. Under his watch, Dollar is now N500 to $1, their is unprecedented hunger in the land, Nigerians are being killed in Southern Kaduna and other places,
“It is better for the President to resign because he appears not to have capacity for positivity.
“If all the presidents that ruled before Buhari had behaved like he is behaving now, he himself will be in jail.
“However, let me say it once again, I am one person who is not afraid of death or incarceration. I will keep telling Nigerians the truth, which obviously hurts Buhari and the cabal around him.”
