AI, Fabrications And Dangers Of Unverified News As Seen In The Alleged Case Of Wike In Housing Saga
The Oasis Reporters
September 26, 2025
There’s a common saying that whoever is coming to equity must come with clean hands. Or else the case is lost ab initio.
Without a doubt, deep corruption has held Nigeria backwards. But what is worse is in making allegations that are not founded or those that can be easily disproved.
Someone forwarded a screenshot of a newspaper to me showing a very salacious piece of news that read thus:
Report Alleges $2 Million Florida Property Linked to Wike Family. Two million dollars is more than 300 million naira. A colossal amount of money that if stolen and diverted can set the state backwards.
It went further to state that “U.S. records cited place the home in the names of his wife and children . A media report citing U.S. records alleges” and so on and so on.
Since we are in the age of social media with it’s components of AI, lies and targeted propaganda, I decided to read the entire story from the alleged source.
So I checked out the so-called Florida Times.
It turns out that there is no such newspaper called Florida Times. It doesn’t exist. Little wonder, there is no website so registered. Why would a newspaper in Florida not have a registered website?
While Florida Times does not exist as a newspaper, there indeed is an old newspaper called Florida
Times-Union. And it is on the web.
When I scanned through the first page screenshot of the salacious piece of news, I decided to check it out on the web. Amazingly, even in the well established and old newspaper called Florida Times-Union, that story of Nyesom Wike or his family owning a piece of property in Florida does not exist.
Such allegations do have the ability of planting false claims in the minds of people against the serving minister, but in case such a thing is true or untrue, making or circulating news of that nature as negative propaganda does no good to the case.
Like Peter Obi would say,
“These fabrications highlight the persistent dangers of fake news and disinformation in our society.
“They are not only misleading but deliberately designed to confuse, misguide, and distract the public”.
If indeed the story is true, it remains condemnable that some public officers are engaged in laundering money abroad. But the case of using fake unverified information to circulate the piece of news makes the case that of targeted vendetta against a very active minister who already has very many opponents who simply want him out of the way. It doesn’t help their case the moment the case is disproved, especially when it is clearly known that artificial intelligence can be manipulated to tell and spread lies.
Take a deep breath, people. Google the story as seen in the circulated news on social media. The Florida Times is not an existing newspaper. The only one that exists is Florida Times-Union. And we have been following the news from their stable, going back to older publications of the newspaper and yet that piece of news is not there. It’s as if the name Nyesom Wike does not exist. Please verify before you publish or believe a story.
Greg Abolo
