Over 50,000 sign petition demanding Omokri’s ban on Twitter for allegedly inciting northerners against Peter Obi

At least 53,378 people have signed a petition seeking the ban of a former presidential aide, Reno Omokri, on the microblogging platform, Twitter, for allegedly inciting Northerners against the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

The petition which was launched on change.org on Thursday was targeting 75,000 signatures.

The petitioners demanded Omokri ban from Twitter and withdrawal of his “Business Insider Influencer of the Year Award,” for inciting northerners against the ex-Anambra State governor, using religious sentiment.

In a tweet on the microblogging platform, the ex-presidential aide said: “While his Obidients are applauding that interview, if you watch it with an unbiased mind, you see that Peter Obi considers himself a pilot and Kwankwaso a mere driver and substitute player. The people of Kano heard that. The North heard that. Others Nigerians heard!”

The petitioners described as an insult to the people of Kano State, Omokri’s description of the ex-governor Rabiu Kwankwaso as a car driver instead of a pilot in the tweet.

The petition read: “On or about the 8th of January 2021, former United States President, Donald Trump was banned from Twitter for writing tweets about the US election that posed a risk of inciting violence.

“On the 6th of July 2022, @renoomokri made the following tweet in response to a TV interview made by one of the presidential aspirants in the Nigerian election.

‘While his Obidients are applauding that interview, if you watch it with an unbiased mind, you see that Peter Obi considers himself a pilot and Kwankwaso a mere driver and substitute player. The people of Kano heard that. The North heard that. Others Nigerians heard!’

READ ASLO: Reno Omokri bashes El-Rufai, Fani-Kayode over comments of APC’s ‘bright chances’ in 2023

“To prove that this was specifically targeted at the northern part of Nigeria and to emphasize his point, he retweet a version again in the Hausa language as follows.

‘Kwankwaso bashine Dan takaran shugaban kasa da nake so ba amma shi ba “Direban mota” da yake so ya “tuka jirgin nijeriya” ne ba kaman yadda Peter Obi ya fada yau a Arise.Kwankwaso ya gina abubuwa da yawa har da gina mutane.Jahilci ne a kwatanta shi da Direba mota.

“Given the historical relationship between the northern and South-East tweets from @renoomokri have a massive risk of inciting ethnic violence in the northern part of Nigeria and subsequent reprisals in the east, especially since Kwankwaso has a huge following in the North and Peter Obi has a following in the east.

“Ethnic violence against the people of eastern Nigeria perpetuated in the northern part of Nigeria was one of the things that led to the Nigerian Civil war. Since then there have been multiple reports of ethnic violence in various parts of Nigeria. A lot of them are targeted at Ibos. In the east, some violence against northerners have occurred too.

“For @renoomokri to make such tweets to his 1.7million followers given the history of Nigeria is not only reckless and dangerous, but it is also extremely callous to try and stoke ethnic violence for political gain. @renoomokri is very knowledgeable about Nigeria’s history so he knows this only too well.

“@renoomokri should be stopped from continuing to use his Twitter influence to create the risk of ethnic or religious violence in Nigeria. Twitter already has a precedent for banning accounts that try to incite violence. They banned Trump!

“We are therefore calling for Twitter to immediately ban @renoomokri from its platform.

“We are also calling on @BusinessInsider to rescind the ‘Business Influencer of 2022’ award granted to @renoomokri. One comment that may result in ethnic violence is more than enough for @BusinessInsider to do this. @renoomokri has made multiple tweets in this regard.”

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