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By 247ureports.com
Arise News anchor Rufai Oseni has criticized NDC presidential candidate Peter Obi over his repeated assertion that he won the 2023 presidential election, after Obi acknowledged in a recent interview that he has no evidence to substantiate the claim.
Obi’s Original Comments
The controversy traces back to a BBC Africa interview in which Obi was asked directly whether he had evidence proving he won the 2023 election. “There’s no evidence. Everything is not based on evidence,” Obi said, before immediately reaffirming his position: “I won the election and that’s where I will end.” Obi, who contested under the Labour Party and finished third behind Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar according to INEC’s declared results, has continued to maintain the election did not reflect Nigerians’ true wishes despite his legal petition being dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court in September 2023 and his subsequent appeal being rejected by the Supreme Court in October 2023. It is not the first time Obi has made this argument in similar terms — in a June 2026 interview, notably with Oseni himself on Arise, Obi told Nigerians to “forget about the proof” because he believed he won regardless of the declared result.
Oseni’s Response
Reacting on Arise News, Oseni pushed back directly on Obi’s claim. “Mr Peter Obi, it is best you do not say things if you do not have the evidence. I must have to repeat it, because when you say that I won the election, you don’t have the evidence to back it up. Then people do not take what you say seriously,” Oseni said. He went on to question whether Obi had conducted any rigorous data-driven analysis before making the claim: “Didn’t you have back-end analysis of result by result before you make the claim? Where are all your own data spreadsheets on the back end that assert your claim? Where is your own back-end collation that asserts your claim?” He concluded: “So it is very spurious to say I won something, but when they say where is the evidence, no evidence. I mean you might feel the urge that you won but if you don’t have the evidence to back it up then you didn’t win.” 247ureports.com could not independently verify these specific quotes beyond the account provided, though they are consistent with Oseni’s established role as a recurring Arise News interviewer of Obi.
Not the First Dispute Over This Claim
Obi’s “I won” assertion has drawn scrutiny from other quarters as well. Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation Babachir Lawal separately claimed Obi, not Tinubu, won the 2023 poll, citing unspecified “aggregated facts sourced from independent sources” — a claim the APC publicly challenged him to substantiate in detail, which Lawal has not done.
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The exchange adds to a broader, ongoing public conversation about the credibility of Obi’s 2023 election claims as he campaigns for 2027, running alongside his current debt-record dispute with the Anambra State Government and the earlier public reversal of his former 2023 spokesperson, Kenneth Okonkwo, on separate claims about his gubernatorial tenure.
