The Nigerian Presidency has come down heavily on the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, submitting that the businessman who once benefited from judicial pronouncements when he reclaimed his mandate as governor of Anambra State in 2007 is now the same person going about castigating the same when the Supreme Court ruled in the favour of President Bola Tinubu on 26th of October, 2023.
Mr. Bayo Onanuga who is the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, made this known in a statement hours after Obi hit out at the Supreme Court verdict which affirmed the electoral victory of Tinubu, the then candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25, 2023 poll.
‘We are at a loss as to how the copy-cat Obi and his faction of Labour Party convinced themselves they won an election in which they came a distant third,’ Onanuga said.
‘At the press conference where he tried, in vain, to gaslight Nigerians with false claims and innuendos, Mr. Obi contradicted himself. Here was a beneficiary of judicial pronouncements in the past now castigating the same court because its judgment did not go his way.’
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Onanuga said Obi and his party should know that the Supreme Court or any other court does not give judgment based on public opinion and mob sentiments. ‘Judicial pronouncements are based on evidence, precedents and the rule of law,’ he said.
The presidential aide said the ex-governor of Anambra should quit criticisms and congratulate Tinubu.
“Having admitted that the Supreme Court ruling brought an end to litigation and any challenge to the bona-fide of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the validly elected leader of Nigeria and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Obi should have congratulated President Tinubu for his victory and pledge his support, in the spirit of statesmanship.”
The Presidency also welcomed Obi and his party to play the role of the opposition and start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027.