Political economist and one of the key members of the Labour Party Prof Pat Utomi has reacted to claims by a presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga that Peter Obi, Utomi and some others are behind the proposed EndBadGovernance protest.
Onanuga had made the allegation early on Saturday in a post on social media.
He said, “I have been on the trail of one of the protest planners, who is nameless but claims to have an internet radio station, PTM100.88 Abuja. The anonymous person joined X in August 2022 and has 520 followers today, among whom are FS Yusuf, another rabid Obi supporter, and Professor Pat Utomi, a Labour Party chief and a guy on X who goes by the pseudonym Peter Obi’s First Son.”
He claimed Obi’s supporters are planning mayhem and that Obi should be held responsible for anarchy.
His post has generated controversy online and offline.
Reacting to this, Utomi said in a post on X that he has been resident in the United States for months and had no idea about the said protest.
“Esteem just collapsed before me. I used to think Bayo Onanuga was a journalist of some standing until I began to receive calls this morning about his accusing me of planning demonstrations for August,” he began.
“First I have been resident in Washington DC and occupied by an intense Fellowship for months with additional work on a book project such that I did not even know demonstrations were being planned until I called a senior civil servant in Abuja who I sent a questionnaire on public policy reforms. I mentioned I would be in Ghana for events around the AU summit and he said if you will come into Nigeria careful that demonstrations in August do not make you run into flight disruptions.
“That is how I heard of protests being planned. This morning when I heard about Onanuga’s comment my inclination was to ignore it. But another caller suggested it could deliberate falsehood to rationalize a sinister plan. I would like Mr Onanuga to present any evidence to justify his comment.”
In another post, Utomi said he has nothing against protest, noting that protests are legitimate ways of the people telling the government how they feel.
He added that he joined the #EndSARS protest against police brutality because he believed in the cause, adding that if he were part of the protest planned for August he would wear it as a “badge of honour and not wait to be called out by Bayo Onanuga.”
