The Presidency has accused supporters of the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, of planning protests across the country.
The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, made the allegation via his X (formerly Twitter) account on Saturday, July 20, 2024. Onanuga, who was emphatic that Obi’s supporters were planning to stage nationwide protests, said Obi would be held responsible for whatever crisis emanated from the action.
He stated: “Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria: 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 own agenda. Lagos still bears the scar of the malicious destruction by IPOB elements until today.”
He said two years after the #EndSARS protest, IPOB and others joined the Labour Party in 2022 to support Obi, who he said was a sympathiser of their cause. The presidential spokesman added: “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 anonymous person joined X in August 2022 and has 520 followers today, among whom are FS Yusuf, another rabid Obi supporter, and Professor Pat Utomi, a Labour Party chief and a guy on X who goes by the pseudonym Peter Obi’s First Son. “PTM’s profile image has someone holding the inscription` Certificate Forger Not My President, ‘with a photo of Peter Obi as an inset. Only Obi’s supporters will be talking about certificate forgery long after the Supreme Court dismissed the allegation.
“In the past 24 hours, this faceless X user has been whipping up the gullible to join the protest being planned and also posting the activities of his Messiah, Peter Obi. He retweets Peter Obi often.”
Onanuga noted that security operatives should, by now, begin to interrogate those he described as agents of destabilisation, saying: “There is no country in the world where people are not going through some economic challenges and where the cost of living is not a major issue.”
Onanuga said the economy is improving and investors are coming back to Nigeria, adding: “President Tinubu has a four-year mandate to run his agenda. Those calling for protest should wait till 2027 to either re-elect him or elect their Messiah, Mr Peter Obi.”
