Isaac Fayose has publicly called out Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, after claiming he transferred ₦1 million to the government aide who submitted his bank account details during an online giveaway.
Fayose, a businessman and younger brother of former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, announced the giveaway on social media and invited Nigerians to drop their account numbers for a chance to receive ₦1 million. What happened next gave him the political ammunition he was looking for.
Over 10,000 Nigerians Submit Account Details for Isaac Fayose Giveaway
The post exploded. More than 10,000 people submitted their bank account details after the giveaway was announced. The post also attracted over 6,000 likes and 364,000 views, making it impossible for Fayose to manually sort through all the entries. The sheer volume of responses underlined the level of financial desperation among Nigerians across political divides.
Among those who dropped their account numbers were supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress. Fayose flagged this as the central irony of the exercise. When he spotted the account details of Lere Olayinka in a group, he made a deliberate choice rather than skip past the name.
“I said okay, it would be nice to give Wike’s SA to prove a point that even those that are supporting this government are hungry,” Fayose said in a viral video.
He followed through. Fayose claimed he transferred the full ₦1 million directly to Olayinka and then took his story public, turning what started as a giveaway into a pointed political statement.
Fayose Fires Political Broadside at APC Over Economic Hardship
“I told people to drop their account numbers for 1 million, and APC supporters are also dropping their accounts. Wike’s SA, Lere Olayinka, also dropped his account number, and I sent 1M Naira to him. This is to show that APC supporters are hungry. They’re all supporting this govt but still hungry,” Fayose said.
He went further. Fayose argued that government supporters and government critics occupy the same economic reality. They buy petrol from the same filling stations, use the same hospitals, and send their children to the same schools. The Tinubu administration’s backing, he said, offers no insulation from the economic hardship gripping ordinary Nigerians.
Fayose also turned his fire on those who questioned why Olayinka received the money at all. He challenged them directly, asking why a government aide would enter a giveaway for financial relief if things were good under the administration he serves. To him, the answer was self-evident.
The backdrop to this episode is Nigeria’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis. Following the removal of the petrol subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market by the Tinubu administration, the naira lost significant value, and inflation climbed sharply. The price of food, transportation, and basic goods rose steeply across the country. That economic pressure has been felt by Nigerians regardless of their party affiliation or political loyalties.
The episode is not the first time Fayose has crossed swords with Olayinka. In September, Fayose had accused the FCT minister’s spokesperson of displaying arrogance during a television appearance on Arise TV, comparing his conduct to that of his principal, Wike.
Lere Olayinka serves as Wike’s Senior Special Assistant with a specific mandate covering public communications and social media. He is a consistent and vocal defender of the FCT minister and the current administration online. His alleged participation in the giveaway, if confirmed, would represent a significant embarrassment given his public role and the optics of a government communicator seeking financial assistance from an opposition-aligned figure.
As of Tuesday, Olayinka had not issued a public response to Fayose’s claims. It was not immediately clear whether the transfer Fayose described had been verified independently or whether Olayinka would deny submitting his account details.
Fayose’s giveaway initiative and the political commentary he has built around it form part of a broader pattern of opposition-aligned activism. He has previously reacted to allegations that the APC diverted over ₦800 billion from the Federation Account Allocation Committee to fund President Bola Tinubu’s re-election campaign, a claim denied by the ruling party. He has also warned Nigerians against returning the APC to power in 2027.
The Olayinka episode gives Fayose a concrete, shareable story to push that same message. Whether or not the transfer happened exactly as he described, the narrative has taken hold on social media, drawing wide public reaction and renewed debate about the depth of economic pain under the current administration.
