The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has challenged supporters of Peter Obi to produce the official result sheet showing that the Labour Party candidate won Rivers State in the 2023 presidential election. Mr Wike dismissed claims by Obi's supporters that their candidate won the state, saying the claim existed only in their imagination. He made these comments during an interview on TVC's Journalists' Hangout.
Mr Wike questioned the claims made by Obi's supporters, popularly known as Obidients, and asked who the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared as the winner. He challenged those who dispute the declared result to produce evidence on which they based their claim. "Let them produce that result sheet that says Obi won," he said. This challenge comes after Mr Obi's supporters continued to dispute the result, citing individual polling unit results and alleging irregularities during the collation process.
The former Rivers State governor also questioned why Mr Obi's supporters did not establish their claim during the legal challenge to the 2023 presidential election. "When they went to the tribunal, were they able to defend their claim?" he asked. Mr Wike emphasized that claims made on social media could not determine the winner of an election. "You can win on social media; I'm not interested in social media winning," he said.
According to Mr Wike, the outcome of the election could not be determined from results or observations from a limited number of polling units in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital. "You don't stay in one place in Port Harcourt and say Obi has won," he said. He pointed out that Rivers has 23 local government areas and said the overall result had to be considered before declaring a winner.
INEC declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress the winner of the 25 February 2023 presidential election in Rivers. In Rivers, Mr Tinubu polled 231,591 votes, while Mr Obi scored 175,071 votes. The Peoples Democratic Party candidate (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, came third with 88,468 votes. The figures were based on results collated from all 23 local government areas in the state.
However, PREMIUM TIMES reviewed presidential election results uploaded to INEC's Results Viewing Portal (IReV) for Rivers State and found a major discrepancy in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area. While INEC's declared figures showed Bola Tinubu winning the LGA with 80,239 votes against Peter Obi's 3,829, PREMIUM TIMES' tally of results from 1,116 of the area's 1,211 polling units found that the Labour Party candidate actually recorded 73,311 votes.
Mr Wike hails from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area and once served as its chairman. He attributed Mr Tinubu's victory in the state to the political structure he controlled at the time. Despite the discrepancies found, INEC's results declared Mr Tinubu the winner in Rivers with a margin of 56,520 votes over Mr Obi.
Key points
- Mr Wike challenges Obi's supporters to produce the official result sheet showing their candidate won Rivers State.
- INEC declared Bola Tinubu the winner of the 2023 presidential election in Rivers State.
- Discrepancies were found in the results from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area.
