The All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council has called the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, “outlandish” in his claim to have won the presidential election on Saturday.
The Council stated in a statement signed by its Director of Public Affairs and Chief Spokesperson, Festus Keyamo, that Obi was only attempting to delegitimize the mandate given to its candidate, Bola Tinubu.
The APC challenged Obi’s claim that he won the presidential election last Saturday, asserting that there was no way he could have won after playing the most divisive religious politics in our history.
Tinubu was declared the winner by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday, with 8,794,726 votes. According to INEC, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) finished second with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi finished third with 6,101,533 votes.
In his reaction to the INEC results announced on Thursday, Obi stated that he had won the election and that he will pursue all legal options to reclaim his mandate.
He stated that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have directed him to challenge the outcome of the Saturday, February 25, 2023 presidential election in court, and that he will do so because he is “Obedient”.
Speaking at his first press conference after the Saturday elections, Obi, who came third with a total of 6,101,533 votes, according to the results announced by INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said he won the election but it was rigged by the electoral umpire.
However, Keyamo, described Obi’s claim as “outlandish”.
Keyamo said, “We make this brief statement in reaction to the Press briefing held earlier today by the defeated candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi, wherein (in his now well-acknowledged penchant for spewing falsehood) he made the outlandish claim before the world that he won the 2023 Presidential Election, but he was robbed of the victory.
“Having been officially declared winner of the 2023 Presidential Election by the Independent National Electoral Commission and having received his Certificate of Return (along with his Vice-President Elect), the President-Elect, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would have ignored these continuous false claims being peddled by Mr. Peter Obi and his supporters. But we recognise his motive of doing this is to simply delegitimise the mandate freely given to the President-Elect by the majority of Nigerians.
“Tinubu has extended a hand of fellowship to his opponents, including Obi to join hands with him in nation-building, Obi should embrace that hand of fellowship and brotherhood by the President-elect as a committed patriot instead of engaging in this crass grandstanding,” the APC campaign council said.