Daud Olatunji
Former Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has admitted that he has no evidence to substantiate his claim that he won the 2023 presidential election, but insisted that he still believes he was the rightful winner.
Obi made the disclosure during a recent interview with BBC Africa while revisiting his long-standing claim that the February 25, 2023 presidential election was marred by irregularities.
Asked directly whether he had evidence to prove that he won the election, the former Anambra State governor said, “There’s no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence.”
He, however, immediately reaffirmed his position, declaring, “I won the election and that’s where I will end.”
Obi also defended his continued assertion that the 2023 election was rigged despite the failure of his legal challenge before the courts.
“I don’t like going back to the past. I sustain what I said,” he stated.
The Independent National Electoral Commission had declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, winner of the 2023 presidential election.
Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, who scored 6,984,520 votes, while Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Both Atiku and Obi challenged the election outcome at the Presidential Election Petition Court, alleging various irregularities and electoral violations.
The tribunal dismissed their petitions, while the Supreme Court subsequently affirmed Tinubu’s victory.
In the interview, Obi also revisited his position on fuel subsidy, rejecting suggestions that he had changed his stance on the controversial policy.
According to him, his major concern was not simply the existence of subsidy but the corruption surrounding its administration.
“I talked about the corruption. The corruption is the problem of the subsidy,” he said.
Obi said that if elected President, he would personally lead the fight against corruption, arguing that reducing the influence of public officials and their families in government-related activities would significantly address the problem.
He said his approach would involve greater personal responsibility and stronger measures to prevent public resources from being diverted.
The former presidential candidate also rejected the suggestion that he should withdraw from the 2027 presidential race to support a possible consensus opposition candidate.
Asked whether he would step down for a consensus candidate, Obi said, “We don’t need to step down. We need to do the right thing.”
Rather than focusing on which opposition politician should withdraw, he urged opposition parties to concentrate on mobilising more Nigerians to participate in the electoral process.
His position comes amid renewed efforts by opposition politicians and political groups to forge a stronger alliance ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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