Prof. Pat Utomi, a renowned political economist, has announced his intention to sue Chief Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu.
This follows Onanuga’s recent allegations accusing Peter Obi, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, and his supporters of planning nationwide protests against economic hardships in Nigeria.
Onanuga’s post on X (formerly Twitter) read: “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.”
He further claimed: “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.”
Onanuga continued, “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’.”
He labeled them as “anarchists” and accused them of attempting to destabilize Nigeria by staging a civilian coup against President Bola Tinubu, adding, “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.”
In response, Prof. Utomi issued a statement on Monday, stating that Onanuga’s claims are false and demanding either evidence or a retraction.
He said, “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.”
Utomi also announced his intention to claim N500 billion for “fake news, hate speech and intent to procure State murder of an innocent citizen.”
He added, “If judicial capture makes justice problematic in Nigeria I expect that I can trust extra-national institutions and global human solidarity.”
He clarified, “My reaction to Onanuga’s statement has therefore nothing to do with the legitimacy of the demonstrations but with the deliberate and outright falsehood of the statement.”
Utomi, who has been living in the United States for several months, refuted Onanuga’s claims, stating, “First, I have been living in the United States for several months now and was actually unaware of threats of demonstrations so I could not have been part of something I did not know was in the works.”
He also criticized the state’s alleged fabrication of falsehoods, saying, “As a student of the State in post-Colonial Africa, I am horrified that agents of the State can fabricate deliberate falsehood.”
Utomi concluded, “As one who survived two assassination attempts under Abacha of which there is public court records when some of those now in power were my colleague freedom advocates, I am clear they know the consequence of their plotting.”