Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi has criticized the Supreme Court’s judgment that affirmed President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the 2023 election, calling it “disappointing” and “contradictory.”

Obi said in a press conference on Monday that the court’s decision ignored “overwhelming evidence” of election rigging and other irregularities.

He also accused the court of “shifting the goal post in the middle of the game” by changing its rules on technicalities.

The Presidency responded to Obi’s criticism by calling him a “copycat” who is “trying to gaslight Nigerians with false claims and innuendos.” The Presidency also said that Obi’s antecedents as Governor of Anambra State “didn’t inspire any confidence as someone capable of running a country like Nigeria.”

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, while reacting to Obi’s comments said, “We are at a loss as to how the copy-cat Obi and his faction of Labour Party convinced themselves they won an election in which they came a distant third.

“At the press conference where he tried, in vain, to gaslight Nigerians with false claims and innuendos, Mr. Obi contradicted himself. Here was a beneficiary of judicial pronouncements in the past but now he is castigating the same court because its judgment did not go his way. We expected the Labour Party candidate to know that the Supreme Court or any other court does not give judgment based on public opinion and mob sentiments. Judicial pronouncements are based on evidence, precedents and the rule of law,” he stated.

Speaking further, he said “Obi should have congratulated President Tinubu for his victory and pledged his support, in the spirit of statesmanship. Instead, he brought up extraneous matters that he thought the apex court should have considered to declare him the winner.

“Obi’s antecedents as Governor of Anambra for eight years didn’t inspire any confidence as someone capable of running a country like Nigeria. No tangible records of achievement in the state he governed recommended him for the Presidency of Nigeria. If Mr. Peter Obi truly believes in Nigeria, the time to prove it is now when all men and women of goodwill are rallying support for President Tinubu in his determination to lead a new era of prosperity, inclusive governance and economic growth in Nigeria.

The Presidency urged Obi to accept the Supreme Court’s ruling and “start preparing for another shot at the presidency in 2027.”