Alleged Sponsorship Of Protest: Obi Demands Apology From Onanuga, Threatens N5bn Suit Over Defamation

The presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in last year’s elections, Peter Obi, has threatened to sue the Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga, over his allegation that he was involved in the planned mass protest over hardship in the country.

Obi writing through his counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme, SAN, of the MADIBA Chambers said the allegation which was widely published in social and mainstream media and read by many within and outside the country maligned his (Obi’s) 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.

Onanuga had, in a post on his X handle on 20 July 2024, said Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria and that 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 today. 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,” Onanuga’s post read in parts.

However, Obi, in his reaction said Onanuga’s allegation might have achieved its insipid motive as well-wishers from all around the globe have inundated Obi to register their shock.

“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.

“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 4 National Dailies, 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 statement read.

It said that in the event of Onunuga’s failure to meet the demands set out above, Obi shall be constrained to approach a court of competent jurisdiction and take legal action against him for defamation and libel.