Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has maintained that he won the 2023 presidential election despite admitting that he has no evidence to substantiate the claim.
Obi made the statement during an interview with BBC Africa while responding to questions about his repeated assertion that the 2023 presidential election was rigged.
When asked whether he had evidence to prove that he won the election, the former Anambra State governor acknowledged that he did not.
“There is no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence. I won the election, and that is where I will end,” Obi said.
Obi, who contested the 2023 election on the platform of the Labour Party, finished third according to the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was declared the winner with 8,794,726 votes, while former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 6,984,520 votes. Obi received 6,101,533 votes.
Obi and Atiku challenged the presidential election result in court, but their petitions were dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld Tinubu’s victory in October 2023.
Despite the court decisions, Obi said he still stood by his position on the election.
“I don’t like going back to the past. I sustain what I said,” he said when asked about his continued claim that the election was rigged.
The former Anambra governor also addressed his political plans ahead of the 2027 presidential election, rejecting suggestions that he should step aside if opposition parties decide to rally behind another candidate.
“We don’t need to step down. We need to do the right thing,” Obi said, arguing that the opposition should concentrate on mobilising voters.
He also spoke about fuel subsidy, insisting that his position on the policy had not changed despite criticisms over his comments.
According to Obi, his concerns have consistently centred on corruption associated with the subsidy system.
“I’ve not changed. What has changed is that whenever I talk about methodology, people say, oh, it has changed,” he said.
On corruption, Obi said that if elected president, he would personally take charge of efforts to tackle the problem.
He argued that leadership by example would be critical in reducing corruption in government.
