Our Reporter, Abuja
Political Economist, Professor Pat Utomi, has carpeted presidential aide, Bayo Onanuga, questioning his credentials as a Journalist.
The Labour Party chieftain who expressed bewilderment at allegations by Onanuga that he was among those hatching a plot to stage a protest against President Tinubu said such thought never crossed his mind.
Bayo Onanuga had taken to his X handle on Saturday to accuse the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, some of his supporters like Professor Utomi and the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, as the brains behind a planned nationwide protest against the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
But Professor Utomi who said he had been away to the United States of America for months, said he only got to know about the plot and the allegations against him through a friend in Abuja.
He said the alleged plot which was only a figment of the imagination of the Presidential Aide, made him lose respect for Onanuga whom he had assumed to be a journalist with standing.
“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.
“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 be a deliberate falsehood to rationalize a sinister plan. I would like Mr Onanuga to present any evidence to justify his comment,” Utomi said via his X handle on Saturday.
Utomi also made it clear that he had nothing against protests having participated in many in his lifetime starting from his university days to the pro-June 12 protests. However, he vehemently denied being behind the planned protest against the Tinubu administration.
“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.”
