The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Digital Engagement, Strategy and New Media, O’tega Ogra, has dismissed reports that youths attacked President Bola Tinubu’s convoy after Friday prayers in Abuja.
Naija News reports that Ogra described videos circulating on social media as misleading.
The controversy arose after an African Democratic Congress (ADC) chieftain, Dino Melaye, shared a video showing some youths throwing stones at a convoy believed to be the President’s.
Some of the youths were heard chanting “Ba ma yi, ba ma so,” a Hausa expression meaning “we don’t want you; we don’t support you.”
Reacting in a post on his 𝕏 handle on Friday, Ogra shared another video showing the President leaving the mosque after the Juma’at prayer.
“Contrary to the narrative being pushed by the opposition, with videos of their alleged paid thugs at the National Mosque today, here is footage of Mr President leaving the mosque after Friday prayers this afternoon,” he wrote.
The footage showed Tinubu, dressed in white with his trademark black cap, waving to supporters who cheered and took photographs as he walked to his official vehicle.
Meanwhile, the President, in a statement he personally signed on Friday, warned politicians and their supporters against violence.
He said security agencies had been empowered to deal decisively with political thuggery and other anti-democratic acts.
Tinubu condemned reported cases of violence at political events across the country and urged political actors to campaign peacefully.
He stressed that campaigns should focus on issues that improve Nigerians’ welfare and advance national development, insisting that violence has no place in a democracy.
