By Enitan Abdultawab
Labour Party’s former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has said there is no evidence to prove his claim that he won the 2023 presidential election, while maintaining that he believes he won the contest.
Obi made the remarks in a recent interview with BBC Africa while discussing his claim that the election was rigged.
Asked whether he had evidence to prove that he won, he initially said, “There’s no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence.”
He, however, immediately maintained his position, saying, “I won the election and that’s where I went.”
The former Anambra State governor was also questioned about his repeated claims that the 2023 election was rigged, despite the courts dismissing his challenges to the outcome.
“I don’t like going back to the past. I sustain what I said,” Obi said.
The presidential election was won by Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party came second and Obi finished third, according to the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Obi and Atiku challenged the outcome at the Presidential Election Petition Court, but the petitions were dismissed. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld Tinubu’s victory.
During the BBC interview, Obi also addressed his position on fuel subsidy, saying his stance had not changed despite criticism that his comments on the issue had shifted.
“I’ve not changed. What has changed is that whenever I talk about methodology, people say, oh, it has changed,” he said.
He said his position had always included concerns about corruption in the subsidy regime.
“I talked about the corruption. The corruption is the problem of the subsidy,” Obi said.
On tackling corruption if elected, Obi said he would personally take charge of the fight.
“If you are not stealing, if you are not involved, your wife and family are not involved, you reduce it by 50 percent,” he said.
Responding to a question about corruption under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Obi said the difference would be that he would personally take charge.
“He wasn’t in charge. The difference is this. I would be in charge,” he said.
Obi was also asked whether he would step down if opposition parties united behind another presidential candidate ahead of the 2027 election.
He rejected the framing of the question, saying the opposition should focus on mobilising more voters.
“We don’t need to step down. We need to do the right thing,” Obi said.
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