Yesterday, the Presidency identified supporters of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last election, Mr Peter Obi, as the masterminds of a planned nationwide protest against the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration.
It tasked security agents to interrogate the “agents of destabilization” behind the planned demonstration while also urging well-meaning Nigerians not to fall for their bait.
However, in a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Obiora Ifoh yesterday, the opposition party denied any involvement by it or its former presidential candidate in the planned protest.
In a lengthy post on his verified X handle, @aonanuga1956, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, revealed that the same individuals who hijacked the 2020 ENDSARS protests are behind the planned demonstrations, spreading hashtags like ‘EndBadGovernance’ and ‘Tinubu Must Go.’
Onanuga, who described the masterminds as “anarchists” and “bad losers” who cannot wait for the 2027 elections but instead seeking to destabilise Nigeria through a “civilian coup, also asked that Obi be held responsible if the protests turn into anarchy. The Presidency identified several key figures, including a faceless internet radio station owner and a Labour Party chief, as being involved in the planned protests.
Onanuga warned that the protesters’ calls for “revolution” and “ending an elected government” amount to high treason and urged security agencies to take action against those threatening the country’s stability.
The post he tagged “REVEALED: Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria: Obi should be held responsible for anarchy”, recalled how a similar call for protest in 2020 was hijacked by other elements, leaving the nation’s economic hub, Lagos State, reeling in massive destruction and looting of public and private property.
Onanuga said: “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.
“Two years after ENDSARS, the IPOB and the 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…”
The presidential spokesman emphasised that every country faces economic challenges, but civilised nations address leadership concerns through elections, not violent protests.
