By Chibuike Nwabuko
ABUJA FCT – Professor Pat Utomi has reacted to the comment credited to Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser Information and Strategy to President Tinubu; saying that if he was one of the planners of the nationwide protest in August, he would have wore it as a badge.
The vocal and brave professor of economics reminded Onanuga that he has participated in many protests from his undergraduate days at UNN to marching with concerned professionals following the annulment of June 12 elections by military jaunta. He also stressed that even though he did not know the organizers of the EndSARS protests, that he supported it.
Precise Post recalls that Onanuga has called out Pat Utomi as one of the stunch suporters of Peter Obi that is a follower of one of the planners of the nationwide protest in August that he is trailing on X. He said 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.
According to him, “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. PTM’s profile image has someone holding the inscription` Certificate Forger Not My President, ‘ with a photo of Peter Obi as an inset. Only Obi’s supporters will be talking about certificate forgery long after the Supreme Court dismissed the allegation.
Utomi while reacting to Onanuga via his X account said”:
“Let it be clear that I have nothing against protests. It is a legitimate instrument of democracy for raising the voice of citizens. I have participated in many in my time. From my undergraduate days at UNN to marching with concerned professionals following the June 12 elections annulment. Even though I did not know the organizers of the EndSARS protests I supported it. So if I were part of whatever is being planned for August I would wear it as a badge of honor and not wait to be called out by Bayo Onanuga”.
Onanuga highlighted that 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.
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. Lagos still bears the scar of the malicious destruction by IPOB elements until today.
