INEC explains why it declared Bola Tinubu winner of the presidential election.
By Emma Ogbuehi
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the president-elect.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, made the announcement at the International Collation Centre in Abuja during the early hours of Wednesday.
Explaining the action, INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said Tinubu scored the highest number of votes cast in the Saturday, February 25 presidential election and satisfied the provisions of the law. The declaration comes amidst controversies surrounding the mode of the election and Tinubu’s inability to secure 25 percent of the votes cast in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), which lawyers say, is mandatory.
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Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, was declared the president-elect with 8,794,726 votes.
Tinubu won the election ahead of other contenders the Peoples Democratic Party candidate (PDP), Atiku Abubakar; the Labour Party (LP) candidate, Peter Obi; and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso.
Other candidates that contested the election include Dumebi Kachikwu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC); Kola Abiola, Peoples Redemption Party (PRP); Omoyele Sowore, Africa Action Congress (AAC); Adewole Adebayo, Social Democratic Party (SDP); Malik Ado-Ibrahim, Young Progressive Party (YPP); Prof Christopher Imumulen, Accord Party (AP); Prof Peter Umeadi, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA); and Yusuf Mamman Dan Talle, Allied Peoples Movement (APM).
The list also includes Hamza Al-Mustapha, Action Alliance (AA); Sani Yusuf, Action Democratic Party (ADP); Nnnadi Osita, Action Peoples Party (APP); Oluwafemi Adenuga, Boot Party (BP); Osakwe Felix Johnson, National Rescue Movement (NRM); and Nwanyanwu Daniel Daberechukwu, Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
In the final computation, APC polled 8,794,726 votes, PDP amassed 6,984,520 votes, LP scored 6,101,533 votes and NNPP garnered 1,496,687 votes.
Declaring Tinubu as the winner, the INEC boss said, “That Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law is hereby declared the winner and returned elected.”