The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, has acknowledged that he has no evidence to prove his claim that he won the 2023 presidential election, while insisting that he still believes he emerged victorious.

Obi made the remarks during an interview with BBC Africa while responding to questions about his repeated assertion that the 2023 presidential election was rigged.

When asked whether he had evidence to support his claim, the former Anambra State governor said, “There’s no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence.”

He, however, immediately reaffirmed his position, saying, “I won the election and that’s where I will end.”

Obi Maintains Position Despite Court Rulings

Obi was also questioned about why he continued to maintain that the election was rigged despite the dismissal of his legal challenges to the results.

“I don’t like going back to the past. I sustain what I said,” he responded.

The Independent National Electoral Commission declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress the winner of the 2023 presidential election with 8,794,726 votes. Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party came second with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi finished third with 6,101,533 votes.

Obi and Atiku separately challenged the outcome at the Presidential Election Petition Court, but their petitions were dismissed. The Supreme Court subsequently upheld Tinubu’s victory in October 2023.

‘We Don’t Need To Step Down’

The 2027 presidential hopeful also rejected the suggestion that he could step down if opposition parties eventually agree on another candidate to challenge Tinubu.

According to Obi, the opposition should instead focus on increasing voter participation rather than asking candidates to withdraw from the race.

“We don’t need to step down. We need to do the right thing,” he said.

Obi, who is seeking the presidency again in 2027 under the Nigeria Democratic Congress, has previously argued that opposition parties should concentrate on mobilising additional voters.

Obi Defends Position On Fuel Subsidy

The former Anambra governor also defended his position on fuel subsidy, dismissing claims that his stance had changed.

“I’ve not changed. What has changed is that whenever I talk about methodology, people say, oh, it has changed,” he said.

Obi maintained that his criticism of the subsidy regime had always centred on corruption.

“I talked about the corruption. The corruption is the problem of the subsidy,” he said.

He said that if elected president, he would retain the subsidy while eliminating what he described as the corruption surrounding the system.

‘I Would Be In Charge’ Of Anti-Corruption Fight

Speaking about how he would tackle corruption, Obi said he would personally take charge of the fight.

“If you are not stealing, if you are not involved, your wife and family are not involved, you reduce it by 50 percent,” he said.

Asked how his approach would differ from that of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Obi said the major difference would be his personal involvement.

“He wasn’t in charge. The difference is this. I would be in charge,” he said.