Faduri Labour Party claim: AA aspirant Joseph Faduri says Labour Party won the 2023 presidential election despite INEC declaring Bola Tinubu winner
ABUJA, September 24, 2026: Joseph Faduri, an Action Alliance presidential aspirant, has claimed that the Labour Party won Nigeria’s 2023 presidential election, despite the Independent National Electoral Commission declaring Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress the winner.
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Faduri made the claim during an appearance on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Thursday while recalling his involvement in the Labour Party’s preparations for the 2023 presidential election.
Faduri said he handed the Labour Party’s presidential ticket to Peter Obi in 2022 and subsequently told Nigerians that the party would win the election.
“My name is Joseph Faduri, for those who are seeing me for the first time,” Faduri said.
“In 2022, I was the one who handed over the ticket to run for the election under the Labour Party, and I was here also to inform Nigerians that LP would win that election.
“And, like a joke, at the end of the day, we had Labour Party win that election.”
Faduri’s assertion conflicts with the official result announced by INEC on March 1, 2023.
According to the declared figures, Tinubu received 8,794,726 votes, representing 36.61 per cent, while former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party secured 6,984,520 votes, or 29.07 per cent.
Obi finished third with 6,101,533 votes, representing 25.40 per cent.
The African Union’s post-election report also recorded Tinubu as the declared winner, with Atiku finishing second and Obi third. AfricanLII
The 2023 presidential election was subsequently challenged in court by opposition candidates.
The disputes focused on issues including the conduct of the election, the transmission of results and INEC’s handling of the process.
Faduri did not provide new evidence in his television appearance to establish that the Labour Party had won the officially declared election.
His comments also extended to an ongoing dispute concerning the leadership of the Action Alliance and the role of the electoral commission.
Faduri criticised INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan over the commission’s handling of competing claims regarding the leadership of the Action Alliance.
He argued that a Court of Appeal decision recognising Kenneth Udeze as the authentic leader of the party should take precedence over an earlier High Court order.
“Under our constitution, a Court of Appeal is higher than a High Court,” Faduri said.
Faduri questioned why the INEC chairman would continue to rely on the earlier High Court order rather than the subsequent Court of Appeal decision.
“The INEC Chairman is sticking with the old order of the High Court and refusing to obey the Court of Appeal, and the reason is best known to him,” he said.
The comments come as political parties and aspirants intensify preparations for the 2027 general election.
Faduri’s intervention places both the disputed 2023 election result and the internal leadership controversy within the Action Alliance in the wider political conversation ahead of the next presidential contest.
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The official 2023 figures, however, remain that Tinubu won the presidential election with 36.61 per cent of the vote, followed by Atiku with 29.07 per cent and Obi with 25.40 per cent.
