A pro-Tinubu group has video evidence of the protesters who stormed its Abuja headquarters on Friday, and it says it's handing the footage over to security agencies.
The City Boy Movement, which is campaigning for President Bola Tinubu's second term, said the videos show one person calling for its property to be set on fire. Its Deputy Director-General, O'Tega Ogra, called that a threat of arson, not protest.
"The footage has been preserved and will be made available to the relevant security and law enforcement agencies," Ogra said in a statement on Friday. "Anyone involved should be in no doubt: we will pursue this matter to the fullest extent of the law."
The protest was part of a nationwide action called by a coalition of civil society groups, trade unions, youth organisations, faith-based groups, and social movements. They declared June 12 a day of mass action to demand that the government tackle worsening insecurity and economic hardship, or that Tinubu resign.
Similar protests happened in Lagos and other cities. But at the City Boy Movement's gate, things turned ugly. Video footage that has since gone viral shows protesters throwing stones and objects at the building while others sang solidarity songs and carried placards.
Ogra acknowledged that insecurity is a real problem but insisted the government is taking steps. He pointed to Tinubu's Democracy Day speech challenging bandits to surrender, and the recent sentencing of those behind the Owo church attack, as proof.
"So when people show up at our gate, on a day like this, pretending nothing is being done, we know exactly what we are looking at," he said. "That is not concern. That is politics. And bad politics at that."
He rejected the idea that the protest was peaceful. "Your right to peaceful protest is guaranteed. Nobody disputes that. But what happened today was not peaceful in any meaningful sense," Ogra said. He argued that no right allows anyone to threaten others, obstruct work, invade space, or try to stop fellow Nigerians from associating with a political movement of their choice.
The City Boy Movement has positioned itself as a political structure backing the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and Tinubu's re-election. It has branches across states for political mobilisation.
Ogra warned young Nigerians not to be used by people who send others to cause trouble while sitting safely somewhere else. "Do not allow yourselves to be used by people who do not care about your pain, your safety, your future, or your country," he said.
He insisted the movement wouldn't let anyone use the hardship and insecurity as a political tool against the government. "Some people have chosen to refuse to see what this government is doing. That is their right, and their business. But we won't be drawn into their pessimism about the future of a country that is on the right track under President Tinubu," Ogra said.