Battle for 2023 presidency not ended, as Obi vows to go to court over Tinubu’s victory

By KEMI KASUMU

The battle for presidency of Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, remains ongoing as Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the Saturday February 25, 2023 presidential election, Dr. Peter Obi, says it will not be finished until it is finished.

To him, he will claim his mandate as, according to the former Anambra State governor, he will prove in court that he won the presidential election and not the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s presidential candidate, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Obi’s vow to pursue his case within the legal mechanisms was made while addressing a press conference broadcast live on a national television in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Thursday March 2, 2023.

The surprises

The DEFENDER reports that Dr. Peter Obi was among the four major candidates and first of two that sprang surprises as he defeated Nigeria’s indisputably strongest politician Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his historic stronghold of Lagos State in the South West, beat him in his ruling party’s seat of government in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), took two other wins from Plateau, Nasarawa states in the North Central, won third Nigeria’s economic nerve centre of Rivers State from the South South and went on to clear his entire region’s states of South East unopposed.

The only region that became the hard nut to crack for the candidate widely believed to have contested as candidate of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and supported by many Nigerian youths in the multi-religious nation’s all-important election was North West.

The region was, however, shared among three other candidates, one of which was vehemently rejected by the CAN and youths-led electoral movement, on the account of being a Muslim from South West Nigeria, to achieve their objective of an Obi presidency.

The election was conspicuously and keenly contested by Obi of LP, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and all did excellently well with one or more states to their respective credit.

IReV

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmood Yakubu, declared Tinubu of the APC the winner and President-elect in the wee hours of Wednesday, precisely at 4:10am.

It was gathered that as at afternoon of Thursday March 2, results from more than 28,000 polling units were yet to be uploaded on the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) portal.

At a press conference in Abuja, the former Anambra State governor announced that he and his party would head to court to challenge the Tinubu’s victory.

Obi, however, appealed to his supporters across the country to remain peaceful and allow the law to take its course, while urging them to still come out en-masse to vote for governorship and house of assembly candidates of the Labour Party across the country on March 11, 2023.