THE PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has threatened to sue Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu over claims that his supporters are behind the nationwide protests scheduled to hold in the first week of August.
In a letter sighted by our reporter, the former Anambra State governor is demanding N5 billion from Onanuga for his claims.
The letter dated July 22 was signed by Obi’s legal team, headed by Alex Ejesieme, a senior advocate.
In the letter, Ejesieme drew the attention of Onanuga to a widely circulated publication titled, “Revealed: Peter Obi’s supporters are the people planning mayhem in Nigeria: Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.”
He said the statement, circulated on social and mainstream media, had damaged Obi’s reputation, portraying him as someone who favours violence despite his well-documented history of non-violence.
“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 society,” part of the letter stated.
The lawyers stressed the emotional distress the allegations by Onanuga had caused Obi and demanded a retraction from the presidential spokesperson.
Obi’s counsels added that the publication has prompted concern for their client from his well-wishers across the globe.
“Our Client denies the entirety of the falsehood contained in the said publication and insists that there is no modicum of truth in the allegations preferred against him in your published statement that has since gone viral on the internet and its various social media platforms.
“The said statements are in every sense malicious and convey with them, the potentiality of an ostracisation of our client by well-meaning citizens of Nigeria. It should be stated without any form of equivocation, that our client is an elder statesman, a diplomat and an unwavering democrat.
“He has always tailored his affairs according to the dictates of the Nigerian law. Where there has been any dissatisfaction with any process or procedure, our client’s first and only resort has been to invoke the appropriate legal mechanisms to ventilate his grievances,” the letter reads further.
Obi demanded a retraction and a public apology in four national dailies (Vanguard, THISDAY, Punch, and The Cable) and on Onanuga’s verified X account.
In addition, Obi is requesting ₦5 billion in damages for the humiliation he and his family endured.
His legal team threatened to file libel and slander lawsuits in court if Onanuga did not comply with these demands within the next 72 hours.
Onanuga, on Saturday, took to his X account to state that Obi’s supporters were planning to stage the nationwide protests scheduled for August 1 and accused Obi and his supporters of committing treason by planning to end the government of an elected government.
He noted that Obi should be held responsible for the planned protest, adding that the protest planners were the same people who instigated the destructive ENDSARS protest in Nigeria in October 2020.
Part of his allegations read, “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.
Meanwhile, The ICIR reported that an LP chieftain, Yunusa Tanko, refuted the allegation against Obi, that he was behind the planned nationwide protest.
In an interview with The ICIR on Saturday, July 20, Tanko noted that Obi had nothing to do with the protest, noting that any citizens could plan to protest based on the hardship in the country under Tinubu’s watch.
A reporter with the ICIR
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