Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 election, has reiterated his claim that he won the poll but admitted he has no evidence to substantiate it.
Obi made the statement during an interview with the BBC, when asked whether he still believed he won the presidential election after Nigerian courts dismissed his challenge to the result.
“I still say what I said,” Obi said when asked if he maintained his claim.
When pressed on whether he had evidence to prove that he won, the former Anambra State governor replied: “There is no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence. I won the election, and that is where I will end.”
Obi contested the 2023 presidential election on the Labour Party platform and was officially placed third with 6,101,533 votes.
According to results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress won the election with 8,794,726 votes, while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party came second with 6,984,520 votes.
Obi challenged the outcome before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal, alleging widespread irregularities and seeking to overturn the result.
The tribunal dismissed his petition in September 2023, after which Obi appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court subsequently upheld Tinubu’s victory in October 2023 and dismissed the appeals filed by Obi and Atiku.
Obi had initially said, shortly after the 2023 election, that he had won and would prove his claim in court.
His latest comments represent a restatement of that position despite the judicial decisions that affirmed the declared election result.
