President Bola Tinubu has pleaded with aggrieved Nigerians, especially youths planning a national protest over the high cost of living to shelve the action, saying there is no need for it.
The President also assured those behind the planned protest that he has heard their grievances and is working seriously to ensure that all their concerns are addressed.
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, conveyed the President’s plea while speaking with State House correspondents after he met with Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President’s assurance came as the face-off between Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayou Onanuga; and the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Mr. Peter Obi, took a new twist, yesterday.
Obi’s lawyers, Tuesday, wrote Onanuga, demanding N5 billion and an apology within 72 hours for accusing him and his supporters of high treason in allegedly being masterminds of the planned “EndBadGovernance protest.”
In like manner, former presidential aspirant and a chieftain of the LP, Professor Pat Utomi, challenged Onanuga to produce evidence of his involvement in the planned protest or face N500 billion litigation.
Tinubu’s assurance
The minister said that at the meeting with the President, general issues on the country were discussed and that the President said he is working assiduously to ensure the country’s economy is placed in a good position.
His words: ‘’We discussed the issue of the country in general and Mr President has asked me to again inform Nigerians that he listens to them, especially the young people that are trying to protest.
“Mr President said he listens to them and takes what they say seriously and he is working assiduously to ensure that this country is good not just for today, but also for the future.
“The issue of the planned protest, Mr. President does not see any need for that, he asked them to shelve that plan and he has asked them to await the government’s response to all their pleas, he has listened to them.’’
Obi’s lawyers write Onanuga demand N5bn, apology
However, former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, has given Onanuga, 72 hours within which to pay N5billion as damages as well a public apology published in four national newspapers for defamation and libel or face legal action.
Obi demanded that Onanuga, retract his wild allegation linking him to the planned mass protest scheduled for August.
Recall that the Presidential spokesman had on July 20, 2024, claimed in his X handle @aonanuga1956 that: “ Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria and that Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.”
Onanuga’s post was tagged, “Revealed: Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria. Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.”
He claimed that individuals who hijacked the 2020 ENDSARS protests are behind the EndBadGovernance and Tinubu Must Go protest. He described the masterminds as anarchists and bad losers who cannot wait for for the 2027 elections but instead were seeking to destabilise Nigeria through a civilian coup, and asked that Obi be held responsible if the protest turned into anarchy.
Onanuga warned that the protesters’ call for revolution and ending an elected government amounted to high treason and called on security agencies to take action against those threatening Nigeria’s stability.
The post read in part: “Obi should be held responsible for anarchy. Don’t be fooled: the malcontents planning to stage nationwide protests are supporters of Peter Obi, the failed presidential candidate of the Labour Party. And he should be held responsible for whatever crisis emanates from the action.
“The protest planners are also the same people who were instigated by IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu to launch the destructive #EndSARS protest in Nigeria in October 2020.
“#EndSARS began as a genuine protest by youths against the Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad, notorious for its high-handedness.
“IPOB members planning to extricate the South East region from Nigeria infiltrated the protest and hijacked it for their agenda.
“Lagos still bears the scars of the malicious destruction by IPOB elements until today. Two years after #EndSARS, the IPOB and gullible innocents joined the Labour Party in 2022 to support Peter Obi, a sympathiser of their cause. They are the people spreading the hashtags ‘EndBadGovernance’, ‘Tinubu Must Go,’ and ‘Revolution2024.’
“They are not democrats but anarchists. They are attempting to call out our people via propaganda because their Messiah, Peter Obi, failed to win the Presidency in the 2023 election.
“As bad losers, they don’t have the patience to wait for another election in 2027; they would rather destabilise Nigeria by staging a civilian coup against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“If they understand the meaning of their hashtags, they will realise they are clarion calls for treason. Wanting to end an elected government is high treason.
“Wanting revolution is a call for a coup d’etat, which is also high treason. I have been on the trail of one of the protest planners, who is nameless but claims to have an internet radio station, PTM100.88 Abuja.”
The post elicited immediate response from the Labour Party and Obi’s Media office. While LP denied involvement saying the party, its supporters and Obi were not planning any protest, Obi’s Media Office, said the Presidency’s allegation was a ploy to arrest Obi.
Legal action
Going further, Tuesday, Obi, writing through his counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN of the Madiba Chambers, said that the allegation which was widely published in social and mainstream media and read by many within and outside the country, maligned his hard-earned reputation as a man, who indulges in violence when all his antecedents are vivid that he abhors violence even in the face of extreme provocation.
The legal counsel wrote: “It’s our client’s conviction that the publication was a calculated plot to demean, ridicule, humiliate and embarrass him by the estimation of every right-thinking member of the society.”
The letter further stated that the allegation may have achieved its insipid motive as well-wishers from all around the globe have inundated Obi to register their shock.
“His appellation as ‘Okwute’ (the Rock) notwithstanding, the demeaning and scandalous publication has also caused a serious emotional injury to our client, given his decades of stellar stewardship in private and public life.
“Consequently, we have our client’s mandate to demand that you retract the statement made in the publication and tender an unreserved apology to him within 72 hours of the receipt of this letter in not less than four national Dailies to wit: Vanguard, THISDAY, Punch and The Cable, including your verified X”@aonanuga1956.
“Our client is also making an unequivocal demand for the monetary damage of N5b for the embarrassment your defamatory publication has caused him and his family.”
The letter further read: “In the event of your failure to meet the demands set out above, our client shall be constrained to approach a court of competent jurisdiction and take legal action against you for defamation and libel.”
Utomi vows to sue Onanuga for N500bn if…
Also, renowned political economist, Prof. Pat Utomi, who denied involvement in the planned protest, vowed to sue Onanuga.
Reacting in a statement he personally signed, Utomi advised Onanuga to withdraw his statement or provide evidence of his claims.
He warned that he would sue Onanuga and claim N500bn if he failed to provide sophisticated evidence.
“If no evidence of Mr. Onanuga’s false assertion is shown I will assume it reasonable that the object is to water the ground for false treasonable felony charges that can result in the claim of one’s life. I intend to therefore proceed to the international criminal and other human rights courts if a reasonable explanation is not forthcoming.
“I will also have no choice but to institute a claim of N500 Billon for fake news, hate speech and intent to procure state murder of an innocent citizen. If judicial capture makes justice problematic in Nigeria I expect that I can trust extra-national institutions and global human solidarity.”
Onanuga’s evil incitement against Obi will fail —MASSOB
Meanwhile, the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has frowned at Onanuga’s attack on Obi, saying that the incitement against Obi would come to nought.
The group advised Onanuga and the Federal Government to leave Obi alone and focus on how to save Nigerians who are starving to death.
“The heavy and massive incoming protest against hunger, high cost of living, government high corruption, impunity and government insensitivity against the welfare of the citizens is not planned or orchestrated by Mr. Peter Obi or his nationwide supporters.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria led Bola Tinubu knows that the protests are neither motivated nor influenced by Mr. Peter Obi but the Northern oligarchic leaders which includes some powerful Northern political, religious, opinion and traditional leaders.
“Mr. Bayo Onanuga and Omokri are two leading internal and external figures waging wars of character assassination, blackmail and incitement against Mr. Peter Obi,” MASSOB said in a statement by its leader, Comrade Uchenna Madu.
Allegation against Obi, reckless —SERG
Also reacting, the South-East Revival Group, SERG, condemner Onanuga’s allegation against Obi.
In a statement by its National Secretary, Hon. Agu Chineme, the SERG said “this shameful position by a government that has chosen to spread falsehoods and lies about Peter Obi instead of finding ways to help hungry and suffering masses of Nigeria who are struggling to find their next meal amid insecurity, unemployment, and lack of access to adequate healthcare across the country is unacceptable.”
The frontline South-East socio-political pressure group urged the Federal Government not to politicize hunger and deprivation in the land.
It warned that “President Tinubu’s handlers could plunge the country into chaos with their reckless propaganda and desperation to continue the now nine years of blame games” of successive All Progressives Congress, APC administrations.
Reported by Friday Ajagunna, Kenneth Ibinabo, Felix Jacob and Adebisi Aikulola
