Peter Obi, the 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, has demanded that President Bola Tinubu’s media aide, Bayo Onanuga, retract accusations that Obi is promoting anarchy.
In a lawsuit filed by his lawyer, Alex Ejesieme, Obi referenced a tweet in which Onanuga claimed that Obi was sponsoring planned nationwide protests against Tinubu’s government to cause unrest and mayhem.
The former Anambra governor has demanded a retraction, an apology published in four newspapers, and N5 billion in compensation for damages.
Nigerians have expressed dissatisfaction with Tinubu’s economic policies, citing increased poverty and rising inflation, and are planning nationwide protests with several demands.
Onanuga alleged that Obi was behind these protests, asserting that it was Obi’s way of expressing frustration over his loss in the last year’s presidential election.
On July 20, Onanuga accused Obi and his supporters of being anarchists who could not accept their loss in the 2023 presidential election and were seeking to destabilize Tinubu’s leadership under the guise of protests planned for August.
Denying these allegations, Obi compared Onanuga to “a lady fool seeking souls to convert to his foolishness.” He demanded N5 billion in compensation for the damage and embarrassment caused by Onanuga’s claims.
“Our client denies the entirety of the falsehoods contained in the publication and insists that there is no modicum of truth in the allegations made against him in your published statement, which has since gone viral on the Internet and other platforms,” Ejesieme wrote in the suit filed on Monday.
Obi further demanded a retraction of the statement within 72 hours, to be published in four national newspapers.
He warned that failure to meet these demands would result in a lawsuit that could see Onanuga tried on the charges in “a court of competent jurisdiction.”
