A fact-check by PRNigeria has shown that the Presidential candidate for Labour Party, LP, Peter Obi, again lied that the late MKO Abiola defeated the late Bashir Tofa in the South East, during the 1993 Presidential Election despite Tofa having an Igbo running mate.
Obi had during an interview with Arise News claimed that the late MKO Abiola defeated the late Bashir Tofa in the South East in the 1993 Presidential Election, despite Tofa having an Igbo running mate.
In the interview, the LP Presidential candidate was trying to puncture the facts that the Igbos had at no time in the history of Nigerian election ever voted for a South-West Presidential candidate.
However, an online search by PRNigeria to fact-check Obi’s claim showed that the late Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention, NRC, won the 1993 Presidential election in three Southeastern states against his opponent MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, who won only one state.
According to a verification, Tofa won in Abia with 334,490; Enugu with 349,902 and Imo with 228,388.
Meanwhile, Abiola won Anambra State with very wide margin of 847,274 votes, which almost equated votes from the three other states in South-East at the time in 1993.
Other documented online sources examined by PRNigeria also revealed that Tofa won three states in the southeast against his opponent, Abiola who eventually won the election.
Conclusion: Facts gathered by PRNigeria revealed that Tofa won three SE states against his opponent MKO Abiola who won in one state in 1993 presidential election that was later annulled by the military administration of General Ibrahim Babangida.
It was therefore concluded that the claim by Mr. Obi that Abiola won the SE states against Tofa is misleading and a lie.