A chieftain of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal has claimed that the disputed 2023 presidential election was actually won by the candidate of the Labour Party, (LP) Peter Obi, and not President Bola Tinubu who was declared the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Lawal, who was a close ally of Tinubu’s and served in the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari, addressed the now contentious political issue in the West African country in Abuja, insisting that “available factual data” aggregated from several independent sources indicated that Obi got the majority votes while Atiku came second in the election, with Tinubu coming a distant third in the number of votes scored.

“I have resisted the temptation to engage in the contemporary political discourse since the February 2023 election faux pas,” Lawal said.

“I did this for two reasons; the first being that as an active player in the drama, I needed time to analyze and digest the data that led to the outcome(s) so I could arrive at an informed decision; the second, being that the rainy season had just set in and it was necessary that I focused my attention on my farms which are the mainstay of my livelihood.

“The current topical issues for political discourse and inquiry are whether or not Bola Tinubu won the presidential election and/or that he was apriori, qualified to participate in the election given his murky bio data as is now being publicly unveiled daily in an avalanche.

“My answer to the first inquiry is that regardless of whatever INEC or Appeal Court said or did, Bola did not win the election.

“Right from the start of the campaigns, Bola knew he was not going to win the election in a free and fair contest so he decided to go by all means.

“Available factual data as aggregated from several independent sources indicate that Obi got the majority votes while Atiku came second. Bola came a distant third in the number of votes scored.

“My answer to the second inquiry is that given the now unfolding deluge of uncomplimentary information about who or what he actually is, ordinarily, sound ethics and morality should have convinced him to voluntarily excuse himself from participation in the election.

“But this, notwithstanding, I believe he still has time and opportunity to save himself this public humiliation and embarrassment to his person, both locally and internationally by resigning so that he can give more attention to his health.

“After all, no one knows about the truism of these severely embarrassing and humiliating exposures about his person than the man himself.

“Leadership is all about integrity; sound pedigree, trustworthiness and the ability to unite and instil hope and confidence in the people one seeks to lead. In these qualities, most Nigerians are in total agreement that Bola has them in very very short supply indeed,” the ex-SGF opined.