The Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Monday officially accepted the judgement of the Supreme Court on Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, describing the apex court’s verdict as breach of confidence.
Obi said, “Without equivocation, this judgment amounts to a breach of confidence Nigerians have in our judiciary. To that extent, it is a show of unreasonable force against the very Nigerian people from whom the power of the Nigerian citizens is drawn.”
He noted that his party, the LP, and the Obidient family had effectively accepted their new role as opposition.
Obi, who expressed disappointment in the judgment of the Supreme Court that affirmed President Bola Tinubu’s victory, vowed that they would take their message of a new Nigeria to the people in their homes, schools, and motor parks among other places.
The former Anambra governor delivered his message of hope at a world press conference held at his campaign headquarters in Abuja.
He stressed that after exhausting all legal and constitutional means to reclaim their mandate, they will remain in the party as opposition and continue to put pressure on the Federal Government to do the right thing.
He said, “Going forward, we in the Labour Party and the Obidient Movement are now effectively in opposition. We are glad that the nation has heard us loud and clear. We shall now expand the confines of our message of hope to the rest of the country. We shall meet the people in the places where they feel pain and answer their needs for hope. At marketplaces, motor parks, town halls, board rooms, and university and college campuses, we all carry and deliver the message of a new Nigeria.
“As stakeholders and elected Labour Party officials, we shall remain loyal to our manifesto. We will continue to canvas for good governance and focus on issues that promote national interest, unity, and cohesion. We will continue to give primacy to our Constitution, the rule of law, and the protection of ordered liberties. We will offer the checks and balances required in a functional democracy and vie robustly in forthcoming elections to elect those who share our vision of a new Nigeria.
“Given our present national circumstances, there is a compelling need for a strong political opposition. We shall, therefore, remain in opposition, especially because of the policies and the governance modalities that we in the Labour Party campaigned for, especially reducing the cost of governance, moving the nation from consumption to production, reducing inflation, ending insecurity, promoting the rule of law, guaranteeing the responsibility to protect, and stabilizing the Nigerian currency; are not the priorities of the present administration nor is it interested in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
“If there is one thing that has immensely gladdened my heart in the course of the struggle of the past 18 months, it is the passionate desire of our people, especially our young people from across ethnic and religious divides, to construct a new and restructured Nigeria that will work for all Nigerians. That goal remains my guiding light and abiding inspiration.
“Finally, I thank all Nigerians who believed in what is now only a revolution postponed. We deeply appreciate the unalloyed non-partisan moral support millions of youth and orpdinary Nigerians across ethnic, religious, and geopolitical divides have continued to give to Dr. Datti Baba-Ahmed and I.”
