The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Benue State has commenced announcement of results of the presidential elections in the state with President Goodluck Jonathan taking the lead in five local governments areas so far.
The INEC Resident Electoral Officer (REC) in the state, Mr. Istafanus Dafwang received the results from collation officers in Makurdi.
He said the five LGAs that had submitted were from the Benue South senatorial district.
The results in Benue North East and Benue North West senatorial districts are yet to be collated.
They already announced LGAs include Ado, Okpokwu, Ohimini, Agatu and Ogbadibo respectively.
The results indicate that in Ado, President Jonathan polled 7,382 against General Mohammad Buhari who scored 2,328 votes.
In Okpokwu LGA, Jonathan has scored 12, 103 votes, while Buhari has 4,757 and in Ohimini, the President led with 5,909 against Buhari who scored only 4,734.
Jonathan also defeated Gen. Buhari in Agatu, home of the PDP deputy governorship candidate in Benue John Ngbede with a wide margin of 9,555 votes against 3,627.
In Ogbadibo, 6,937 votes went to Jonathan on a slim margin to the APC candidate who has only 6,257 votes.
Meanwhile, the leading opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State has accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of deploying intensive machineries to manipulate the results of presidential and National Assembly Elections in the three senatorial districts of the state.
The media director of Ortom/Abounu governorship campaign organisation, Mr. Tahav Agerzua who stated this in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP said, “especially in the Benue North senatorial District where APC has won obviously, the PDP is trying to manipulate it.”