Presidency slams Peter Obi, describes him as a copycat who gaslights Nigerians

At the conference held in Abuja on Monday, Obi officially reacted to the Supreme Court judgement that affirmed the victory of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. 

In his speech, Obi said he was disappointed that, despite the plethora of evidence before the apex court, the judges chose to focus on technicality to dismiss his petitions on the legitimacy of Tinubu's presidency. 

The judgement according to him was a total breach of Nigerians' confidence in the judiciary. 

Obi said, “Setting legal issues aside, the Supreme Court exhibited a disturbing aversion to public opinion just as it abandoned its responsibility as a court of law and policy. It is, therefore, with great dismay I observe that the court’s decision contradicts the overwhelming evidence of election rigging, false claim of a technical glitch, substantial non-compliance with rules set by INEC itself as well as matters of perjury, identity theft, and forgery that have been brought to light in the course of this election matter.”

However, in a swift reaction, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said he didn’t understand how Obi convinced himself that he won the election in which he came third.

He said Obi, who had benefited from the apex court’s judgment in the past should not castigate the court because its recent judgement didn’t go his way.

“We are at a loss as to how the copycat 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 but now he is castigating the same court because its judgment did not go his way. We expected the Labour Party candidate to 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 maintained that since the LP candidate admitted that the Supreme Court ruling brought an end to his litigation, he should have, in the spirit of statesmanship, congratulated President Tinubu. 

He, therefore, urged Obi and his party to play the role of the opposition and start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027.

He added that the presidency hoped that the former Governor of Anambra State “would not whip up religious and ethnic sentiments as he did in the last campaign.”