Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, has brushed aside curses allegedly directed at him by some clerics backing the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, describing the religious figures as “fake” and their actions as meaningless.
Sowore spoke on Wednesday in Abuja while addressing journalists and supporters, reacting to videos and reports of clerics who publicly cursed him for criticising the FCT minister.
Questioning the power of such curses, Sowore argued that if curses truly worked, Wike would not still be alive.
“Curse on who?” Sowore asked. “If curses worked, Wike would have died long ago. If they truly had power, he would have disappeared from the surface of the earth a long time ago.”
He accused the clerics involved of exploiting religion for personal and political gain, dismissing them as unserious actors.
“These are jokers,” he said. “I don’t even know where they buy those fake bishop clothes in Abuja. That market should be banned.”
Sowore went further to criticise the role of religion in Nigerian society, claiming it has become a major tool for deception.
“The truth is that religion has become one of the biggest ways people are deceived in this country,” he said. “A lot of hungry people now use religion to exploit others.”
According to him, the problem cuts across denominations and sizes of congregations.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a small church or a mega church in a stadium. Anyone deceiving people in the name of religion is the same,” he added.
Sowore said he has no respect for religious leaders who, in his view, manipulate faith for material or political purposes.
“One of Nigeria’s biggest problems is religion,” he said. “It has been used for too long to scam people.”
He also described his spirituality as separate from organised religion.
“I work for God, but without a church and without religion,” Sowore stated.
The comments follow reports that pro-Wike supporters, including a self-styled cleric, staged a protest against Sowore and fellow activist Deji Adeyanju after they criticised an alleged illegal land allocation in Maitama Extension, Abuja.
Sowore and Adeyanju had accused the FCT administration of allocating a protected green area—designated under the Abuja Master Plan for environmental preservation—for the construction of luxury duplexes, a move they described as harmful to the city’s ecological future.
Following their criticism, a video surfaced showing a man identified as a bishop leading protesters in support of Wike. The group openly endorsed the controversial land allocation and attacked Wike’s critics in harsh language.
In the footage, the cleric criticised Sowore for allegedly insulting a minister and went on to praise Wike’s performance as FCT minister, while also offering prayers for President Bola Tinubu to retain Wike in office for an extended period.
Sowore, however, maintained that neither curses nor intimidation would stop him from speaking out against what he described as wrongdoing in government.