• PDP candidate clinches Abia, Ondo, Enugu

Romanus Ugwu and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The All  Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari, has polled 2.85 million votes in 10 states declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) National Collation Centre, at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, yesterday.

President Buhari won in Kwara, Nasarawa, Osun, Ekiti, Gombe, Kogi and Yobe states, out of the 10 states the Commission declared the presidential results, yesterday, defeating the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidates, Atiku Abubakar, who scored 2.4 million votes. 

According to the declared results from states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Atiku, won in Abia,  Enugu, Ondo and the FCT; to trail the incumbent, relegating other political parties to mere participant observers.

Although the PDP agent, Osita Chidoka, had objected to the results from Kogi, on the grounds that it was not a reflection of the votes, the INEC chairman did not stop accepting the announced results.

Declaring the presidential results from Ekiti, the Collation Officer and Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Idowu Olayinka, revealed that while the APC candidate got 219,231 votes, the PDP candidate polled 154,031 votes. 

Olayinka also disclosed that the total number of votes cast stood at 393,709, total valid votes 381,132, while the total invalid votes were 12,577.

Similarly, the Collation Officer for Osun State and Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Olutoyin Ogundipe, equally declared that Buhari won with 347,634, slightly above the PDP candidate, with 337,377 votes.

Ogundipe explained that the total number of registered voters in the state stood at 1,674, 129, accredited voters; 732,984, total votes cast; 731,882, while valid votes are 714,682 and invalid votes 17,200.

Announcing the FCT results, the Collation Officer, Mohammed Suleiman, declared that while the PDP candidate polled 259,997 votes, the APC got  152,224 votes, and added that out of the 1,335,015 total registered voters, those accredited are 467,784, total votes cast 451,408, while the rejected votes stood at 27,457.

Atiku also won the presidential election in Ondo; with 275,901 votes, relegating the APC candidate with 241,769 votes to the second position.

The collation officer, Kayode Soremekun, who ran into a storm when he was presenting the results, said out of 1,812,567 registered voters, the total number of votes cast was 568,827, the number of cancelled votes in 71 polling units totaled 42,283.

Giving a breakdown of the result in Abia, the SCOPE, Chinedu Nwajuba said whereas there are 1,793, 861 registered voters, only 361,562 were accredited for the presidential poll.

He noted that the PDP and the APC scored  219, 698 and  85, 058 votes respectively, while 21,180 votes were voided.

In Kwara, the collation officer, Abdullahi Gala, said the APC led with 308,984 votes, while PDP scored 138,184 votes, and explained that over 3,342 votes in the pulling units across four local government areas were cancelled over cases of sundry electoral infractions.

He further announced that out of the 1,401,895 total registered voters, 489,482 were accredited, while 459,676 validly voted and 26,578 votes were rejected.

Kogi Collation Officer, Michael Adikwu, said the APC polled 285,894 votes to defeat the PDP which scored 218,207 votes.

He explained that 89,101 votes, in 89 Polling Units, were cancelled outrightly; due to hostilities during voting. He said out of the 1,640,449 registered voters, 570,773 voters were accredited while 521,016 valid votes came from 553,496 total votes cast. Similarly, in Gombe, APC won with a very wide margin of 402,961 votes while the PDP got 138,484 votes.

On his part, the SCOPE  for Yobe State, Abubakar Musa of the Federal University, Wukari, in his submission stated that out of the 1,365, 913 registered voters in the state, 601,059 voters were accredited for the poll.

Musa said the APC garnered 497,914 votes; the PDP scored 50,763 votes, while 4,407 votes were canceled.

Presenting Nasarawa State results, the Academic Provost National Defence Academy (NDA), who doubled as the collation officer, Azubuike Sunny Nwankwo, announced that the APC won with a slim margin of 289,903 votes while the PDP trailed with 283,847 votes. He explained that 613,720 voters were accredited; out of the 1,509,481 registered voters.

However, political party agents raised objections when the collation officer for Nasarawa announced that 157,591 votes were cancelled in 86 Polling Units across seven LGAs, protesting that the results were doctored.

Nwankwo had blamed the cancellation on what he called ‘gangsterism and other electoral maleficence.

In his reaction,  INEC Chairman, Mahmood  Yakubu assured that the result of the presidential elections in the state will be looked at; due to complaints of huge number of cancellations.

In Enugu, Atiku beat Buhari by 355, 553 votes to 54, 423 votes.