Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), emerged as the president-elect of Nigeria on Tuesday. He defeated 15 other candidates, including Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP), and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP). Professor Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced 4:10 am. Tinubu received a total of 8,794,726 votes out of the 24,025,940 total valid votes cast.
According to Yakubu, Tinubu’s closest challenger, Atiku, garnered 6,984,520 votes, while LP’s Obi received 6,101,533 votes, and Kwankwaso of the NNPP scored 1,496,687 votes. Having satisfied the law requirements, Tinubu was declared the presidential election winner. The certificate of return was scheduled to be issued to him and his vice president-elect, Kashim Shettima, by 3 pm on the same day.
Tinubu won in 12 states, including Zamfara, Jigawa, Niger, Kwara, Oyo, Ekiti, Kogi, Benue, Ogun, Borno, Ondo, and Rivers, with a lead of over 1.8 million votes against Atiku. Atiku also won in 12 states, including Osun, Kebbi, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, and Taraba. In comparison, Obi led in 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), including Abia, Lagos, Edo, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Ebonyi, Cross River, Delta, Nasarawa, Plateau, and FCT. Kwankwaso won in Kano.
Earlier, before the collation of the results in the morning, two other political parties, PDP and LP, asked the INEC Chairman to step down, alleged manipulation and rigging in the electoral process. They demanded the cancellation of the election and a fresh one conducted. In response, the APC and Tinubu instituted legal action to restrain the LP and the PDP from stopping the collation and announcement of the results.
Julius Abure, the national chairman of the LP, spoke on behalf of his party and the PDP and accused INEC of failing to use electronic means of transmitting results as stated by the Electoral Act. He referred to Section 60 subsection 5 of the Electoral Act, which states that the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballots, in a manner as prescribed by the commission. He insisted that all results recently uploaded on the IReV portal must be updated before they are announced, and he called on Yakubu to step aside from his role.
