Human rights activist and publisher of Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore has petitioned the “Attorney-General of Florida, Hon. James Uthmeier,” seeking the “forfeiture and prosecution of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike,” over “illicit property acquisitions” in the United States.
The petition, “dated September 22, 2025,” was “signed by his lawyer, Deji Adeyanju, Esq.”
The petition accuses Wike of “secretly purchasing multi-million-dollar real estate in Florida using suspicious cash transactions designed to conceal the source of funds.”
According to the petition, Wike, along with his wife, Justice Eberechi Suzzette Nyesom-Wike, purchased three “luxury lakeside properties in Winter Springs, Seminole County, Florida,” valued at “over $6 million.”
The petition lists the properties, all of which were “purchased in cash.”
The document also notes that the purchases were made via “quit claim deeds between July 2021 and September 2023” and “transferred directly to Wike’s children,” bypassing banking oversight and raising “serious money laundering concerns.”
The petition alleges that Wike failed to “declare these foreign assets to Nigeria’s Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) as required under the Constitution.”
Nyesom Wike and Omoyele Sowore
It also notes that his legitimate income as a public servant “could not sustain such multi-million-dollar acquisitions.”
Adeyanju argued that the transactions violated “Florida state law” and “U.S. federal anti-money laundering statutes.”
He cited the “U.S. Department of Justice’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative” as a precedent for the case, stating, “The U.S. Department of Justice’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, launched in 2010, provides a ready mechanism for action in these kinds of cases, where corrupt foreign officials launder stolen public wealth into the United States under the guise of ordinary family transfers.”
The petition asserts that the acquisitions “are not isolated acts” and “form part of a pattern of corruption that Mr. Wike has cultivated throughout his career as a public servant and politician.”
It adds, “Most recently, as Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, he has been credibly accused of allocating thousands of hectares of the capital’s most valuable public lands to his sons, Jordan and Joaquin, through shell companies and proxies.”
The petition also argues that while Wike’s wife was the named grantor in the deeds, it is “evident that the acquisitions and subsequent transfers to their children were undertaken in concert with her husband,” and that her income “could not reasonably sustain multi-million-dollar cash purchases of luxury homes in Florida.”
In the petition, Sowore urged the Florida Attorney General to:
Investigate the source of funds.
Commence forfeiture proceedings against the identified properties.
Institute criminal prosecution against all parties involved.
Impose visa bans and sanctions on Wike to prevent further abuse of U.S. territory.
The petition concluded with a warning that failure to act would make the U.S. a sanctuary for corruption.
The petition stated, “The people of Nigeria have been impoverished for decades by the diversion of public funds,” and “It would be a perversion of justice if those funds, siphoned through abuse of office, are allowed to flourish in Florida’s real estate market.”
