The standard-bearer of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has restated his claim that he won the 2023 presidential election, while acknowledging that he has no evidence to support it.
Obi made the statement in an interview with the BBC after being asked whether he still believed he won the election despite the courts rejecting his challenge to the results.
The former Anambra governor contested the 2023 presidential election under the Labour Party (LP), finishing third with 6,101,533 votes.
President Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the election with 8,794,726 votes and was declared the winner, while Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) came second with 6,984,520 votes.
Days after the election, Obi claimed he had won and said he would establish his position in court.
He subsequently challenged the results before the presidential election petition tribunal, alleging widespread irregularities in the conduct of the election.
In September 2023, the tribunal dismissed his petition, ruling that he had failed to prove his allegations of electoral malpractice and other grounds on which he sought to invalidate the election results.
The Supreme Court later affirmed Tinubu’s victory in October 2023, dismissing appeals filed by Obi and Atiku.
‘EVERYTHING IS NOT BASED ON EVIDENCE’
During the interview, Obi was asked whether he still maintained that he won the election, to which he reaffirmed his previous position.
“Well, quite frankly, I don’t like going back to the past. I still say what I said,” he said.
When asked whether he had evidence to establish that he won the election, Obi replied: “There is no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence. I won the election, and that is where I will end”.