Protest Allegation: Obi To Onanuga – Apologize, Pay N5bn Damages Or…
BY VICTOR BUORO – Offer apology and pay five billion Naira as damages or be prepared to meet me in court.
This is the strong message coming from the Labour Party (LP)’s Presidential candidate in the last general elections, Peter Obi to Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Communication and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, for alleging that he is involved in planning mass protest over hardship in the country.
Threatening to sue Onanuga for libel and character defamation, Obi, writing through his counsel, Chief Alex Ejesieme (SAN) of the MADIBA Chambers, said the allegation, widely published in social and mainstream media and read by many within and outside the country, maligned his (Obi’s) hard-earned reputation.
The former Anambra State Governor said Onanuga’s comments portray him as a man who indulges in violence when all his antecedents are vivid that he abhors violence even in the face of extreme provocation.
This legal moves by Obi is against the backdrop of Onanuga’s post on his X handle on 20 July 2024, saying that Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria and that Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.
The presidential aide wrote; “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”
However, reacting on behalf of the former Governor, his counsel, Chief Ejesieme 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.”
The statement added; “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 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.”