Presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi, has written off the just concluded February 25 elections, describing it as the worst since the country’s independence and a setback in the democratic process.
He made this known yesterday when he featured on a national television programme which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York, asserting that he was adamant in challenging the process of the election and the declaration of Bola Tinubu of the APC as the winner.
He said the conduct of the presidential election has further dampened the morale of youths who had so much hope in the process given the provisions in the Electoral Act for the electronic transmission of results to deal with previous loopholes that militated against free and fair elections.
‘We have seen probably what I consider the worst election in our recent history because of the Electoral law (Act) of 2022 which gave so much hope and the huge expenditure we put into technology. Do you know what it means to spend over $1 billion? So, there was so much that was promised and then we went back to what it used to be. For me, that is very devastating. I can assure anybody if today I’m in service, Nigeria would not spend nearly what it spent and we would have a first-class election that would be celebrated globally,’ he said.
Obi, however, expressed confidence that the right thing would be done in the post-election dispute before the tribunal.
The LP candidate has filed a petition before the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal to challenged the result announced by INEC.
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He said the Nigerian judiciary understands the gravity of the case, adding that ‘they know they have to build a better place for their children. I believe Nigeria has the best judiciary globally, it is we politicians that are trying to, because of our transactional methods, ensure that everywhere is corrupted. I have confidence in the judiciary. They know the country had collapsed. They know they have to build a better place for their children.’
When he was asked whether or not he would accept the outcome if it is not in his favour, Obi said he would be shocked if the court upholds Tinubu’s election.
‘Issues about the election will be sorted out in court. I will be shocked if this country goes on with that situation. It will then stand that it is a corporate criminalised country. We can’t allow it. We need to start unbundling this criminality.When people were talking about structure, it is this fraud and criminality that we witnessed that they were talking about, and we want to unbundle it for the sake of our children.’
He also said he would not accept any offer to be part of the Tinubu’s proposed government of national unity and advised his supporters not to vote blindly in the governorship elections.
He tasked his supporters to vote only for candidates with proven character, competence, capacity, and compassion.