2023 election: Peter Obi cancels campaign trips, heads to court with lawyers

Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, said he will not be part of the campaigns for governorship and state assembly candidates for the elections on Saturday, March 11.

Obi on Wednesday tweeted that he has to be in Abuja in the company of lawyers.

INEC is seeking to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) it used to conduct the 2023 presidential election. But Obi moved a motion requesting the court to restrain INEC to reconfigure BVAS.

“I am supposed to commence our whistle-stop campaign for our various Labour Party Governorship and State Assembly Candidates today,” Obi tweeted. “Initially, my trip was to take me to Nasarawa, Lagos, Enugu, Abia, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Plateau, Borno, etc.

“However, following INEC’s refusal to allow our party to inspect the materials (including BVAS) from the 25th February presidential elections, I am personally heading to the Court today with our lawyers.”

However, Obi urged the party supporters to campaign massively for their candidates.

“As we pursue due process and defer to the rule of law, I urge all the OBIdients in the various states to continue campaigning for our candidates, namely, Gbadebo Rhodes Vivour in Lagos, Chijoke Edeoga in Enugu, Patrick Dakum in Plateau, Alex Otti in Abia, Ken Pela in Delta, Ibrahim Mshelia in Borno, to name just a few. It is also imperative that Obidients vote for candidates with Competence, Character, Capacity, and Compassion.

“I remain committed and will give more attention to our mission of retrieving our mandate. A new Nigeria is possible!”

The outcome of the presidential elections saw Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the ruling party declared winner by INEC.

INEC announced that Tinubu polled 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 6,984,520 votes.

Obi got 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) came a distant fourth with 1,496,687.