Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Babachir Lawal, has allegef that that the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, allegedly won the 2023 presidential election.
He made the claim few days after a former minister and governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, similarly claimed that Obi won in Rivers State during the election, but his votes were altered.
Lawal, who served under late Muhammadu Buhari administration, claimed that Obi won the entire election, as against the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
He made the claims while answering questions during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
He said that based on the facts available to him, Obi won the election that produced Bola Tinubu as Nigeria’s 16th president.
He, however, failed to present the facts he alluded to in making his claims.
He also failed to explain why he failed to make available such purported results to Obi to enable him add to the facts at his (Obi’s) disposal when he challenged the outcome of the election up to the Supreme Court, but was just saying it.
The erstwhile SGF argued, none the less, that President Tinubu did not win the election, stressing that the results available to him at that time, showed he (Tinubu), did not win the election.
While clarifying his claims, Lawal reiterated that him and some other unnamed persons monitored the election, collected data and monitored the results from the fields.
He added that some of the results announced by INEC were altered.
When asked who he believed won the poll, he said, “Peter Obi won that election.”
He also claimed that President Tinubu is arrogant, but was not specific.
“He is arrogant. The guy has an arrogance that belies definitions.
“The problem with Bola Tinubu is that he thinks I’m the one that offended him.
“I didn’t offend him, he offended me and he is full of himself, and he thinks that he is now so-called president…I believe he didn’t win the election,” he said.
Lawal also said he would not have coped in the current administration if he were a member of the President’s cabinet.
According to him, he would have resigned if he were a member of the Tinubu government.
“I thank God that I didn’t make the mistake of being in this government ab initio.
“If I were in this government, I probably would have been sacked a long time ago, killed or resigned.”
Lawal said he was uncomfortable with Tinubu’s governance style.
The former member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) accused Tinubu’s government of nepotism, citing the appointments made by the President.
“I cannot go to a meeting in which 99 per cent of the participants are Yoruba. The tendency is that they finish the meeting in their language, and I am just sitting there.
“When we were doing the campaign, after he went to Ogun and said ’emi lokan,’ there was a Bola Tinubu platform in which I was participating.
“They started insulting us, saying that northerners are illiterate. So I wrote on that platform that these are the people whose votes we would need.
“The problem with the Yoruba is that when you support them and they win, they behave as if they have subdued you. They will not count your support,” the former SGF stated.
