Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, insisted on Thursday that he won the presidential election last Saturday and was ready to prove it.
He claimed that the presidential election, won by All Progressives Congress candidate Bola Tinubu, was tainted and scripted to produce predetermined results.
Tinubu was declared the president-elect by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos State, was declared president-elect after receiving 8,794,726 votes in the 2023 presidential election.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced Tinubu as the winner at the International Collation Centre in Abuja during the early hours of Wednesday.
But while addressing a world press conference in Abuja on Thursday, Obi said the election did not meet the necessary requirements and could not be adjudged credible.
The former Anambra State governor insisted that Nigerians were robbed of their true choice, adding that he would pursue justice through court and was ready to challenge the results till he prove his argument.
“The election that we just witnessed had been conducted and the results announced as programmed. It is a clear deviation from electoral rules and guidelines contrary to what we were promised.
“This election did not meet the minimum standard expected of a free, fair, transparent and credible election. It will go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria.
“The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by our supposed leaders whom they trusted,” he said.
“Let me reassure the good people of Nigeria that we will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate. We won the election and I will prove it to Nigerians,” Obi vowed.
The former governor said he believed the process through which people come into any position was important and there was a need for Nigeria to sanitise the process.
Obi said, “the process through which people come into the office is far more fundamental, more important than what they do (in office) thereafter.
“It is my belief that if you must answer your excellency, the process through which you arrive at to office must be excellent.
“We must now require that we do the right thing in order to generate the right confidence and moral authority to lead. As you know, the structure of society begins and gradually retrogresses when we act rascally and deliberately in the manipulation of rule of law and suppression of the will of the people.
He said he had challenged several election results and come out victorious and he would be approaching the court with the firm belief of getting justice.
“On this issue (presidential election) I am challenging the process. I will challenge this rascality for the future of the country.
“The court exists for this and they have asked me to go to court and I will be going to court,” the former governor said.
Quipped on if he is under pressure, he said no one can put him under pressure for challenging the rascality.
He said, “Please, be assured that this is not the end but the beginning of a journey for the birth of a new Nigeria.
“Datti and I remain absolutely undaunted and deeply committed to the project of a new Nigeria that will be built on honesty, transparency, fairness, justice, and equity. All the above starts with the process.”
He added, “We have to go through this darkness. The structure of criminality can’t go out overnight.
“All we need to show is commitment and resilience. I will be at the forefront and will work through this darkness until daybreak,” Obi vowed.
