By Uche Amunike
The presidential candidate of the Labour Party at the 2023 Nigerian presidential election of February 25, Mr Peter Obi, has finally spoken, stating that he won the election and will prove it in court.
Speaking, during a World Press Conference held in Abuja, Thursday, Obi stated that the just concluded Nigerian presidential election did not satisfy the requirements needed to declare it credible. He maintained that the victory by the All Progressives Congress flag-bearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, which he described as controversial, was programmed to deliver pre-determined results.
Obi reiterated that Nigerians were stripped of their preferred choice of president, but that he would seek Justice in the law court and would challenge the results till his arguments were proven to be true.
Hear him: ‘The election that we just witnessed had been conducted and the results announced as programmed. It is a clear deviation from electoral rules and guidelines contrary to what we were promised.’
‘This election did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, fair, transparent and credible election. It will go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria.’
‘The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders whom they trusted,’ he said.
‘Let me reassure the good people of Nigeria that we will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate. We won the election and I will prove it to Nigerians,’ he vowed.
He stated that the electoral process in Nigeria needed to be sanitized because of how important the process of placing people into any position was.
His words: ‘the process through which people come into the office is far more fundamental, more important than what they do (in office) thereafter.’
‘It is my belief that if you must answer your excellency, the process through which you arrive at to office must be excellent.’
He further stated: ‘We must now require that we do the right thing in order to generate the right confidence and moral authority to lead. As you know, the structure of society begins and gradually retrogresses when we act rascally and deliberately in the manipulation of rule of law and suppression of the will of the people.’
He said he had challenged several election results and come out victorious and he would be approaching the court with the firm belief of getting justice.
‘On this issue (presidential election) I am challenging the process. I will challenge this rascality for the future of the country.’
‘The court exists for this and they have asked me to go to court and I will be going to court,’ Obi said.
When he was asked if he was under pressure, he replied that nobody could put him under pressure for challenging the rascality witnessed at the Nigerian presidential election and assured Nigerians that this decision of heading to the court was not the end, but rather, the beginning of a journey towards a new Nigeria.
Hear him: ‘Datti and I remain absolutely undaunted and deeply committed to the project of a new Nigeria that will be built on honesty, transparency, fairness, justice, and equity. All the above starts with the process.’
‘We have to go through this darkness. The structure of criminality can’t go out overnight. All we need to show is commitment and resilience. I will be at the forefront and will work through this darkness until daybreak’, he concluded.
