Leadnaija
Reno Omokri, a renowned Nigerian politician through his verified X page has reacted to an TV interview of one of the Obidients group members, Mr Akin Osuntokun claim that the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi won the 2023 General Election.
LeadNaija reports that Reno faulted and condemned this clam and argued that even if what he says about Peter Obi winning Lagos by a wider margin is true which he (Reno) believe that it is not. The elections in Lagos were the most monitored and transparent of the 2023 polls), it would still not have given Mr. Obi victory.
Read His Full Post Below:
I just watched Egbon Akin Osuntokun’s interview with Edmund Obilo, and I must say that I am rather astounded by his claims in that discourse.
It is rather a surprise that a highly respected individual like Egbon Akin Osuntokun would say that Peter Obi won the #NigerianElections2023. One could expect that from die-hard Obidients, but I had expected someone as cerebral as Mr. Osuntokun to have analysed the outcome of the elections with a more dispassionate and objective mindset.
Even if what he says about Peter Obi winning Lagos by a wider margin is true (it is not. The elections in Lagos were the most monitored and transparent of the 2023 polls), it would still not have given Mr. Obi victory.
Peter Obi had neither the numbers nor the spread to win the election. And even in his petition to the Presidential Election Petition Court, Peter Obi at any time never claimed to have won the election.
I urge Egbon Akin Osuntokun to please read Peter Obi’s petition to the PEPC, if he has not already done so. It is a public document.
In his petition, Peter Obi called for the #NigerianElections2023 to be voided and another election held. He asserted that President-elect Tinubu could not be validly elected without getting 25% of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory.
Furthermore, Peter Obi asserted that the Chicago forfeiture judgment is a conviction, rendering candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu ineligible to contest. Again, he claimed that Kashim Shettima violated the Electoral Act by receiving a double nomination.
Finally, he petitioned that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s failure to transmit the election results electronically renders it null and void.
However, Peter Obi did not claim that he won the election.
Therefore, it is strange that despite Peter Obi’s glaring admission in his petition, Egbon Akin Osuntokun is making this claim.
Therefore, the question Mr. Osuntokun may want to consider is this: If a United Peoples Democratic Party could not defeat the ruling All Progressives Congress during the 2019 election, how reasonable would it be to expect Peter Obi to defeat a United APC in 2023 when the PDP had broken up into four factions with the rump of the party going with Waziri Atiku Abubakar, and a considerable chunk leaving with Governor Nyesom Wike and the G-5 to support the APC, while Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso took his two million votes to the NNPP, leaving Peter Obi with the crumbs of the PDP which he took to the Labour Party.
Finally, Mr. Osuntokun does not explain to Nigerians how a third-place winner could have won the 2023 election.
Peter Obi secured 6,101,533 votes, while Waziri Atiku Abubakar had 6,984,520 votes in the kitty. This made Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu the winner of the polls with 8,794,726 votes.
Even at that, Mr. Obi only secured 25% of the votes cast in just 16 states. This means that even if, for the sake of argument, you add the votes that Mr. Osuntokun claims Mr. Obi had in Lagos to his final tally, Mr. Obi would still have come third after Waziri Atiku Abubakar.
The maths do not add up. The fact of that matter is that, just like Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka said:
“I can say categorically that Peter Obi’s party came third, not even second, and the leadership knew it, but they want to do what we call in Yoruba ‘gbajue’, that is force of lies.”
