Peter Obi clarifies ‘I’ll die for my votes’ remark

Peter Obi has said his declaration that he was prepared to “die” for his votes was not intended to promote violence, but was a symbolic expression of his determination to protect the votes of Nigerians in the 2027 presidential election.

The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Development Congress explained that the statement followed a comment by a participant at a recent gathering in Port Harcourt, who said Nigerians were ready to die in defence of their votes.

Obi gave the clarification during an interview on Arise TV on Thursday.

According to the former Anambra State governor, his response was meant to assure supporters that he shared their resolve to ensure that votes cast during the election were properly counted and protected.

He said, “Well, you see, people didn’t listen. What I did in Port Harcourt is more of listening to the people. It wasn’t me talking. They were asking questions.

“And one of them said, we are prepared to die this time to defend our votes. And I said to encourage them that I’m prepared to die with them. It’s symbolic.

“What we are saying is that we are prepared to ensure that our vote counts, and it must count.”

The remark had attracted attention after Obi told supporters in Port Harcourt that he was willing to die to protect his votes ahead of the 2027 election.

Speaking on how he planned to safeguard the integrity of the results, Obi said his team would deploy a monitoring system capable of receiving results directly from polling units and transmitting them to its situation room.

He said, “We must make sure that at every polling unit, the votes are counted, the votes are recorded properly, the votes are transmitted properly.

“And we will have even a dual transmission so that as it’s going to the proper designated INEC portal, it’s also being transmitted where the people can see it.”

When asked whether such an arrangement would amount to creating a parallel election system, Obi rejected the suggestion.

“No, not at all. All we are saying is that this time around, we will make sure that in every polling unit, we must have a system that transmits to our own situation room the correct results.

“And I’m sure there’s so many other agencies that intend to do the same thing. So we’re not going to have a situation where somebody just pronounces something that didn’t emanate from the polling unit.

“Our task is to make sure that the right things are done,” Obi replied.

He also confirmed that his political camp would maintain its own mechanism for documenting results from polling units, stressing that the objective was to promote transparency and prevent results that did not originate from polling units from being presented as genuine.

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