The results of Saturday’s presidential election so far declared indicate that the All Progressives Congress standard bearer, Bola Tinubu, has won the poll in Ekiti State while his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart, Atiku Abubakar, came top in Osun State.
On the other hand, the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, is leading his opponents in Edo State where he has recorded an early lead in eight LGAs.
Tinubu, who polled over 201,494 votes across the 13 local government areas of Ekiti State, was announced the winner by the state Collation Officer, Prof Akeem Lasisi, on Sunday.
Lasisi, who is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila Orangun, Osun State, further disclosed that the PDP scored 89,554 votes while the LP garnered 11,397 votes just as the New Nigerian Peoples Party got 264 votes in the state.
He said, “Ekiti has a total of 988,923 registered voters; out of this, the number of accredited voters is 315,058. Total valid votes, 308,171; the number of rejected votes 6,301 and total votes cast, 314,470. This is the final result of the presidential election in Ekiti State.”
The APC candidate is also leading in Oyo State where he was declared the winner in 31 out of 33 local government areas announced so far.
The results were announced by the local government collation officers at the INEC office in Ibadan, the state capital, under the supervision of the acting Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Prof Babatunde Olusola.
Other results showed that the former Lagos State governor had won nine LGA so far declared in Kwara State.
The results indicate that the APC came first in Oke Ero, Ilorin East, Asa, Offa, Ekiti, Irepodun, Isin, Oyun and Ilorin South.
The result of Ilorin West which is the fourth local government in Kwara Central Senatorial zone has yet to be collated while that of six other LGAs were being expected as of press time.
Similarly, the APC performed well in six out of the seven local government areas of Katsina State which results were declared as of Sunday afternoon.
The LGAs are Matazu, Dutsi, Charanchi, Ingawa, Musawa and Kaita. But the PDP won in the Batsari LGA.
The returning officer for Batsari LGA, Prof Aliyu Sabo, disclosed that the election could not be held in two wards of the council due to the activities of terrorists which scared away voters.
However, he did not reveal the names of the two wards, promising to do so in his formal report on the election.
The results of the seven councils were announced on Sunday afternoon in Katsina by the returning officers for the councils at the premises of the state headquarters of INEC.
The session was later postponed till 1.10pm as other officials were being awaited with their results.
Meanwhile, the results of the National Assembly elections were still being collated at the headquarters of each senatorial zone as of the time of filing this report.
In Osun State, the PDP presidential candidate won in 20 of the 30 LGAs announced by the state Collation Officer, Prof. Tolulope Ogunsola, at the INEC office in Osogbo on Sunday.
Atiku won Ede North and South, the two local areas under Ede town, where the state governor, Ademola Adeleke hails from.
The party also won in Boluwaduro, Ifedayo, Ila, local government, where ex-Osun Governor, Bisi Akande hails from; Odo Otin, ex-governor, Olagunsoye Oyinlola’s LGA, Orolu, Egbedore and Ilesa East, the local government of the Interior Minister, Rauf Aregbesola.
The PDP equally cleared Irepodun, Ife-South, Ife-North, Ola-Oluwa, Ayedire, Obokun, Oriade, Atakumosa-East, Atakumosa-West, Ifelodun and Ilesa West.
But the APC secured victory in Ife East, where the APC National Secretary, Senator Iyiola Omisore voted, as well as Ife Central and Boripe local government of ex-governor Adegboyega Oyetola.
The APC candidate also won in Olorunda and Osogbo, the two local government areas within the Osogbo metropolis, where the Senate spokesperson, Ajibola Basiru voted.
Tinubu also won in Isokan, Irewole, Ayedaade, Ejigbo and Iwo local government areas.
Announcing the results, Ogunsola said Peter Obi of LP polled 23,283, while Kwankwaso of NNPP had 713 votes.
Atiku got 354, 366 and Tinubu polled 343, 945.
Giving a breakdown of the poll, Ogunsola said, “Total registered voters was 1,954,800, accredited voters, 759,362, valid votes,733, 203, invalid votes, 23,541 and total votes cast, 756,744.’’
Atiku is currently leading in the nine local government areas of Bauchi State so far announced.
The announcement of results was coordinated by the state Collation Officer, Prof. Abdulkarim Mohammed, the Vice Chancellor, of Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State.
The exercise began at the state INEC office at 4.30pm before Mohammed announced a break at 6.30pm and said it would resume at 8.00pm.
So far, results of Warji, Bogoro, Dass, Dambam, Jama’are, Giade and Darazo, Kirfi and Misau LGAs have been announced by the various Electoral Officers.
According to the results, Atiku got 100,304 votes, while Tinubu got 69,831 votes.
The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, Musa Kwankwaso got 13,740 votes. The Labour Party Candidate, Peter Obi came fourth with 7,968 votes.
The PDP presidential candidate has also won 11 Gombe State local government areas whose results were announced at the state collation centre on Sunday.
In Niger State, however, the APC is leading in the results of four out of the six LGAS so far announced.
Tinubu defeated his opponents in four out of the six LGAs while Atiku was leading in two LGAs.
The collation officers for the six LGAs presented their results at the INEC office in Minna between 4pm and 5:55pm on Sunday.
At its Edo State office Benin, INEC said the LP standard bearer was declared the winner in eight of the nine LGs announced so far, while his APC counterpart won one council.
According to the commission, Obi won Ugueben, Esan Central, Esan North East, Esan South East, Esan West, Uhuwonde, Urhionwon and Egor local government areas, while Tinubu won in the Owan West LG.
In Lagos, Obi defeated Tinubu in his Ikeja LGA. The LP standard bearer polled 30,004 votes, beating Tinubu with 21,276 to the second place. PDP’s Atiku got only 2,280 in the LGA.
Obi is also comfortably leading in his state, Anambra and he also won in the Numan LG of Adamawa State.
The LP equally demonstrated its popularity in Enugu State as it was declared the winner in the nine local government areas so far announced.
They include Nkanu East, Enugu South, Aninri, Uzo-Uwani, Igbo-Etiti, Isi-Uzo, Oji-River, Enugu North and Nkanu West local government area.
According to the Collation Officer for Nkanu East Council, Mrs Scholastica Eze, the LP polled 11,746, APC 94 and PDP 1430.
For Enugu South Council, the Collation Officer, Mrs Patricia Agor reported that the party scored 38,511 votes against PDP’s 336; APGA 201 and APC 190.
In Aninri LGA, the Collation Officer, Dr Osita Ossia reported that the LP candidate had 11,339 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku, who polled 395 votes, while APC scored 64 votes.
The Nkanu West Collation Officer, Kalu Ruben declared that the LP scored 15023 votes, adding that the PDP obtained 550 votes and the APC, 343.
In Ogun State, Tinubu won in all the 20 local government areas of the state.
For instance, the APC candidate secured a commanding lead in Abeokuta North where he polled 20,094 to outrank Atiku who polled 5,057 and Obi, 4,092; Ijebu Ode where he had 16,072 while Atiku and Obi scored 4,057 and 3,162, respectively.
But the story was different in Yobe State where the PDP put up a valiant fight to defeat the APC in Gujba LGA, where the state governor, Mai MalaBuni hails from.
Announcing the result, the returning officer for the LGA, Dr Musa El-Zamani, said Atiku scored 8,204 against Tinubu’s 6,643 votes.
Obi and Kwankwaso secured 25 and 217 votes, respectively.
There was a commotion on Sunday evening at the Multipurpose Hall 5 of the Kashim Ibrahim College of Education, Maiduguri, the venue of the Borno State Presidential collation exercise, as several election observers suggested the cancellation of the results from Gubio LGAs over numerical inconsistencies.
This was because the total valid votes and votes rejected did not tally with the total votes cast in the 15 wards of the local government.
The inability of the Assistant Electoral Officer (Operations) of INEC in Borno State, Zahra Musa, to reconcile the numbers despite two attempts allowed by the Presidential Collation Officer, Prof. Jude Rabo fueled public suspicions.
Consequently, the observers argued that the results be cancelled while an individual insisted that Musa refers back to the forms received from each polling unit.
However, Robo and other members of the collation team did not act on the suggestion.
Rather, they adjourned the collation exercise to 10:00am Monday (today).
Speaking with our correspondent afterwards, Rabo said, “She (Zahra Musa) has not submitted any result yet. If we had accepted it, then the result is accepted.”
Despite the incident, the APC presidential candidate is leading in at least four LGAs announced by the returning officers in Gubio, Kaga, Magumeri and Mafa.
A similar trend was recorded in River State where the results so far collated indicated that the APC won in two of the three LGAs.
The party won in Tai and Opobo/Nkoro, while the LP was declared the winner in Ahoada West by the state collation officer, Prof Charles Adias.
Adias stepped down the results from Gokana and Abua/Odual over some discrepancies in figures and asked the electoral officers in charge of the councils to reconcile their figures and present the results later.
Also, Tinubu in 15 out of 16 local government areas declared in Ondo State on Sunday.
He won in Akoko North-East, Owo, Idanre, Akoko North-West, Ondo West, Irele, lle- Oluji/Oke-Igbo, Ose, Ondo East, Akoko South-West, Akoko South-East, Ifedoro, Akoko South-West, Akure South and Ilaje, while Atiku won in Ese Odo.
But the NNPP presidential candidate has continued to maintain his dominance of Kano politics as the results showed that he is leading in 16 of the 18 local government areas announced so far.
According to the results announced at the state collation centre, the APC candidate has won two LGAs.
According to the results declared by the various collation officers in the respective local governments, the PDP candidate won in 10 out of 14 local government areas, whose results were declared on Sunday
The results also indicated that Tinubu won in three local governments while Obi clinched one local government area.
The LGAs won by Atiku Abubakar include Eastern Obolo, Onna LGA, Okobo, Itu, and Esit Eket. Others won by the party include Ibeno, Ibesikpo Asutan, Ikono, Eket, Obot Akara, Uruan, Ini, Nsit Antai and Oron local government
According to the results, Bola Tinubu of the APC won in Etim Ekpo, Uroe Effiong Oroko and Ika LGAs while Peter Obi won in Ibiono local government areas
Meanwhile, the collation of the results of the presidential election in Bayelsa State has been temporarily suspended.
The collation process will resume at 11pm tonight at the Professor Mahmood Yakubu Media Centre, the venue of the exercise at the Yenagoa INEC office along Swali Road.
The State Returning Officer and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof. Lilian Salami, announced the decision after conferring with the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Bayelsa State, Emmanuel Alex-Hart, and other security and INEC personnel overseeing the collation process.
The result for Kolokuma/Opokuma LGA was announced first by the Collation Officer, Prof. Francis Oluleye, followed by that of Nembe LGA as the results for the other six local governments were yet to arrive.
But after the result for Nembe LGA was announced by the Collation Officer for the area, Dr Comfort Mbachu, of the Federal University Otuoke, Salami observed some discrepancies in the summation of the figures.
She then advised Mbachu to go and ‘clean up’ and return to announce the corrected result.
While the wait for Mbachu lasted, some state party collation officers approached Salami and others to seek postponement of the process to tomorrow, Monday.
Salami, after consulting the state REC and other relevant officers, directed that the exercise be suspended till 11pm Sunday.
She said, “This collation (of presidential election results) is taking place simultaneously here and in Abuja. So I don’t think it will be fair (to stop abruptly); having discussed with members of this divide (high table) that we take a break and reconvene at 11 o’clock. Peradventure nothing happens, then we can choose to close and nobody will fault us.
“But if we do that just now it will appear as if we are not responsible and I don’t want to be part of that, and neither do you want to be part of that. So let us go and relax and once we come in, we will be as fast as possible.”
Tinubu won 31 out of 33 local governments announced so far in Oyo State, while the announcement of the results of the two remaining local governments will be announced today (Monday) by 8am.
The results were officially announced by the local government collation officers at the Independent National Electoral Commission’s office in Ibadan, the state capital.
It was announced under the supervision of acting Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Professor Babatunde Olusola, who is the state collation officer and the state Commissioner for Police, Adebowale Williams.
In another development, the APC presidential campaign council has cautioned the LP and PDP to avoid heating the polity with unflattering comments.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by the Chief Spokesman for APC PCC, Festus Keyamo.
Keyamo stated that the PCC has observed certain subtle threats of violence coming from the camps of the opposition parties as the results of Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly poll trickled in.
The PCC warning is coming in the wake of reports that the elections were marred by violence in many parts of the country, a situation that also led to the loss of lives and disruption of the voting process.
Keyamo admonished the parties to conduct themselves with decorum instead of heating the polity.
The statement read, “Our attention has been drawn to some incendiary comments by spokespersons of the opposition parties, notably the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour Party regarding the yet-to-be-announced results of the elections that were held yesterday.
‘’Some of them have threatened fire and brimstone if their versions of some concocted results are not announced in a bid to be the judge, jury and executioner in this election.’’
“On our part, we have decided to be calm to await the official announcement of the results and to pursue any grievance (if any) in a lawful manner. But we shall not sit back and allow such unguided comments to gain grounds to foist a particular narrative on our citizens and the international community. Recall that all parties signed the Peace Accord twice before the eyes of the world. Now is the time to abide by the terms of that accord and show love for the country over and above personal ambitions.’’
In the meantime, the PDP flag bearer, Atiku has asked INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, to ensure the immediate upload of election results.
Abubakar said in a statement by Paul Ibe, his media adviser, that all election results should be immediately uploaded from the polling units to ensure that people’s will was not subverted.
The former vice-president said the INEC chairman should “instruct collation officers for yesterday’s election to upload the results from the polling units to the INEC server immediately.”
Abubakar said this has become necessary to checkmate some governors who he said were trying to compromise the results at the local government collation level.
“It will be a disservice to Nigerians and a negation to democracy for anyone to subvert the will of the people as freely expressed in their votes of yesterday,” he said.
He asked Nigerians to be calm but vigilant to ensure that “anti-democratic elements who are masquerading as progressives do not steal their mandate”.
In a tragic development, one person was reportedly shot dead in Idanre , Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State on Sunday at the collation centre.
It was gathered that the deceased, Akinlabi Akinnaso, popularly known as Oluomo, was allegedly killed by the security agents guarding the electoral commission’s office
An eyewitness said the deceased, a businessman in Akure and PDP supporter in Idanre, was shot by the security agents during a scuffle on the premises of the INEC office.
According to him, the deceased had gone to the collation centre to inquire about the result of the House of Representatives election but was killed during a scuffle with a security officer.
The source said, “The deceased was not a political thug but he is a supporter of the PDP. He went to the collation centre when the officials of the INEC did not announce the results of the election in the local government on time on Sunday morning.
“When he got there he argued with the security men on duty at the centre. They asked him to leave the premises but he refused, so it was during the scuffle that one of the security men shot him in the stomach and he died.
It was gathered that his remains had been deposited at the mortuary of the Ondo State General Hospital, Idanre.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami said, “I heard about it but can’t confirm the incident for now but I will call the DPO of Idanre to confirm and get the details.”
