Hardship Protest: Presidency Accused Of Plot To Arrest Obi

The Presidency has been accused of blackmailing the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr Peter Obi, with a plot to arrest him over the planned August 1 nationwide protests.

Some youths have been adamant on staging peaceful protests across the country on the said date to draw the attention of the government to the prevailing crippling hardship across the nation.

Reacting to the planned protests on Saturday, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga in his X handle (formerly Twitter) accused Obi as the mastermind of the planned nationwide protest.

“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,” Onanuga said.

However, the Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR), in a statement on Sunday by its spokesman, Yunusa Tanko, accused the Presidency of deliberately plotting to blackmail the former Anambra State governor with the planned nationwide protest.

Tanko described the allegations as lacking any shred of proof, rather alleged that the claims by Onanuga were part of series of plots being hatched by the Presidency to blackmail the former LP’s presidential candidate to prepare the ground for arrest him, limit his freedom and association as well as stopping his propagation for good governance.

The POMR’s spokesman further stated that Obi is never known as a violent person and had never even spoken ill of any person, even in his reaction to personal attacks.

“The attention of the Peter Obi Media Reach (POMR) has been drawn to the wild, wicked and baseless allegations by one of the spokespersons in the Presidency, Bayo Onanuga accusing the Labour Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi of being the mastermind of a planned protest in the country.

“The statement even said that Obi should be held responsible and interrogated for any mayhem that may occur in the protest.

“But POMR can report from good and reliable authority that these unsubstantiated allegations are being orchestrated to arrest Obi, limit his freedom and association and stop his propagation for good governance which they find injurious to their lavish lifestyle.

“Peter Obi by his mien in and out of political office has not in any way shown or been associated with violence even in the most obvious provocations.

“He has always shown even during the electioneering that he is issue-driven as he carries on without calling anybody’s name,” Tanko said.

He said that POMR is also aware “that multiple attack dogs have been hired and strategically deployed to ensure that Obi does not enjoy the ear of the Nigerian populace who are keen on hearing his voice on issues.

“These spin doctors and hirelings, to justify their pay, indulge in all kinds of falsehood ostensibly to distract Obi and confuse Nigerians who already see Obi as a soothing balm in the current turbulent political and economic environment.

“All the problems real and imagined created by their insensitivity and lavish lifestyle they have curiously tried to link to Obi.

“Notable challenges of the administration which are a consequence of their actions and inactions like fuel subsidy fallouts, growing poverty in the land, inflation, nepotism and unresolved historical conflicts among others they blame all on Obi.”

POMR therefore urged Nigerians “to ignore the Presidency’s cheap blackmail as Obi and the Obidient family all over the country and in the diaspora remain resolute in their search for a new Nigeria that is POssible and would not be cowed or be made to lose focus.”