HOW DID WIKE’S ALLEGED BILLIONS ENTER U.S. ECONOMY UNDETECTED? — EVEN AMERICA MUST BE QUESTIONED, SAYS EDWIN

The Executive Secretary of the African Institute for Statecraft, Adai Edwin Adai, has stirred intense debate over the alleged financial transactions linked to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, insisting that the scale of the alleged movement of funds raises questions far beyond Nigeria’s borders.

In an explosive interview with Voice of the People TV, Adai expressed deep concern that a politician could allegedly transfer such “humongous” sums across international borders without being flagged by global financial watchdogs.

“How did we get to a system where a politician can literally amass that kind of wealth and then launder such huge amounts of money undetected? The word is ‘undetected.’ The money flew out of Nigeria, crossed several regulatory checkpoints, and landed squarely in the American economy,” he queried.

Adai did not spare the United States, insisting that Washington cannot wash its hands off the matter. “Even the American government needs to be questioned. It is not enough to say, ‘Oh, it is Wike.’ How did the money move? What are the processes? What procedures were bypassed? These are questions we must ask.”

The governance expert maintained that such monumental transactions cannot occur in isolation, stressing that powerful institutions must have played active roles.

“You and I know that this kind of humongous transaction cannot happen without the complicity of governments, without the collaboration of banks, and without blind spots deliberately created in the financial system,” he argued.

Adai’s remarks are already fueling a wider conversation on international complicity in money laundering, with critics warning that the scandal, if proven, could expose loopholes not only in Nigeria’s regulatory framework but also in the global financial system.