{"id":9502,"date":"2025-11-16T10:33:47","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T10:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/?p=9502"},"modified":"2025-11-16T10:33:47","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T10:33:47","slug":"opposition-slam-fg-over-arraignment-of-youth-accused-of-calling-for-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/2025\/11\/16\/opposition-slam-fg-over-arraignment-of-youth-accused-of-calling-for-coup\/","title":{"rendered":"Opposition Slam FG Over Arraignment Of Youth Accused Of Calling For Coup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Major opposition parties have criticised the Federal Government for arraigning 27-year-old Innocent Onukwume, who is accused of calling for a military coup on his \ud835\udd4f handle.<\/p>\n

They described the outburst as an expression of the \u201cgrowing frustration\u201d under President Bola Tinubu\u2019s administration rather than a genuine threat to Nigeria\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n

The Department of State Services arrested\u00a0 Onukwume for tweets posted in October via his handle, @theagroman. According to court filings before the Federal High Court in Abuja (FHC\/ABJ\/CR\/610\/2025), he allegedly sought military assistance to carry out the purported coup.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Punch on Saturday, the National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Bolaji Abdullahi, said the party does not support unconstitutional actions but argued that Onukwume\u2019s statements should worry the authorities.<\/p>\n

He asked,\u00a0\u201cIs there anybody left in this country, apart from the minority benefitting from the system, who thinks that this democracy is working for the people?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Abdullahi added that the government should have engaged Onukwume instead of prosecuting him.<\/p>\n

He said,\u00a0\u201cInstead of rushing to prosecute a frustrated young man who obviously doesn\u2019t have the capability to effect such change, the government should have sought to understand the underlying issues.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

According to him, extreme calls for revolution or regime change are now common expressions of widespread frustration under the APC.<\/p>\n

MeanwhileNNPP: APC Has Abandoned Democratic Ideals<\/h2>\n

The New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) also faulted the government\u2019s action, accusing the APC of failing to uphold the democratic principles it once championed.<\/p>\n

NNPP spokesman, Ladipo Johnson, said,\u00a0\u201cThis government kept calling for the rule of law, democracy and civil rights when it was in opposition. But it doesn\u2019t want to give Nigerians that same right now that it is in government.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He argued that the prosecution reflects a lingering \u201cmilitary mentality\u201d in the nation\u2019s democratic space.<\/p>\n

In a related development, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party (LP), Tony Akeni, described the move as hypocritical, recalling the 2012 Occupy Nigeria protests.<\/p>\n

He said,\u00a0\u201cWhen Tinubu was in opposition, he led the masses and they carried an imitation coffin of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Nobody arrested them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Akeni argued that if the APC-backed DSS would prosecute Onukwume, then everyone who participated in the Occupy Nigeria protests should also be charged.<\/p>\n

He added that his earlier declaration to resign from the LP had been rejected, saying,\u00a0\u201cMy declaration to step aside has been rejected by all organs of the party.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The Peoples Democratic Party acknowledged that calling for a coup is a serious matter, but said the young man\u2019s comments reflect the harsh economic realities Nigerians are facing.<\/p>\n

PDP Deputy National Youth Leader, Tim Osadolor, said,\u00a0\u201cThe young man is only recounting the hunger, suffering and pains that Nigerians are going through daily.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

He added that the APC-led administration should be concerned that Nigerians are even contemplating a return to the military era.<\/p>\n

Osadolor warned that the same freedom of speech guaranteed by democracy is what the young man is now being punished for.<\/p>\n

He said,\u00a0\u201cInstead of victimising the young man, let the government sit up and do what is right to assuage the sufferings and killings going on unabatedly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Major opposition parties have criticised the Federal Government for arraigning 27-year-old Innocent Onukwume, who is accused of calling for a military coup on his \ud835\udd4f handle. They described the outburst as an expression of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9504,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9502\/revisions\/9504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beadysword.com.ng\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}