Results from 18 states and the Federal
Capital Territory so far released by the Independent National Electoral
Commission on Monday showed the All Progressives Congress Presidential
candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari coasting to victory.
He polled 8,520,436 votes in the states
and the FCT while his Peoples Democratic Party counterpart and incumbent
President Goodluck Jonathan had 6,488,210 votes.
The Daura, Katsina State-born former Head of State won 10 of the states and Jonathan, eight plus the FCT.
The states cleared by Buhari are Kaduna, Kwara, Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Kogi and Ogun.
Jonathan captured Abia, Anambra, Nasarawa, Enugu, Ekiti, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Plateau and FCT.
In the South-West states, Buhari won
in Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Ogun but lost in Ekiti where he garnered 120,331
votes. Jonathan polled 176,466 votes in the PDP-controlled state.
Buhari polled 299,889 votes in Ondo,
308,290 in Ogun, 528, 620 in Oyo and 383,603 in Osun while Jonathan
had 251,368; 207,950; 303,376; 249,929 respectively.
The results from Lagos State are yet to be announced.
Expectedly, the President held sway
in the South-East by scoring in Abia, 368,303 votes; Anambra, 660, 762;
Enugu,553,003; Ebonyi, 323,653 and Imo, 559,185.
Buhari had 13,394 votes in Abia State; 17,926 in Anambra; 14,157 in Enugu; 19,518 in Ebonyi and133,253 in Imo.
INEC only announced the results from
only one of the six South-South states before it shifted further action
till Tuesday(today). The state is Akwa Ibom where Jonathan had 953,304
votes against Buhari’s 58,411.
Jonathan also had the upper hand in the FCT where he garnered157, 195 votes ahead of Buhari’s 146, 399.
In Kwara State, the former Head of State
recorded 302,146 votes; 1,127,760 in Kaduna; 1,345,441in his home
state of Katsina; 885,988 in Jigawa; 1,903,999 in Kano; 236,838 in
Nasarawa; 264, 851in Kogi and 429,140 in Plateau.
Jonathan had 132,602 in Kwara; 484,085
in Kaduna; 98,937 in Katsina; 142,904 in Jigawa; 215,779 in Kano;
273,460 in Nasarawa; 149,987 in Kogi; and 549, 615 in Plateau.
Saturday’s election was the fourth time
Buhari was taking a shot at the Presidency. In 2003 and 2007, he flew
the flag of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party and in 2011, the
Congress for Progressive Change.
Hours before the results were
announced , Jonathan met behind closed doors with some foreign observers
who monitored the presidential and National Assembly elections.
Those he met with were a former
Ghanaian President, Kuffour, who is the leader of the ECOWAS Elections
Observers; a former Liberian President, Amos Sawyer, leader of the
African Union Election Observer Mission; a former Malawian President and
Head of Commonwealth Election Observer Mission, Bakili Muluzi; and the
AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Ambassador Aisha Laraba
Abdullahi.
The meeting which started inside the
Presidential Villa, Abuja at about 3.30pm was also attended by
Vice-President Namadi Sambo and a few presidential aides.
US, UK warn against manipulation of results
As the meeting was ongoing, the United
States and the United Kingdom expressed concern over what they called
“disturbing indications” of a “deliberate political interference “ in
the collation process.
The UK Foreign Secretary, Philip
Hammond, and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in a joint
statement posted on www.uk.gov, said “there are disturbing indications
that
the collation process – where the votes are finally counted – may be subject to deliberate political interference.”
Warning politicians not to undermine the
independence of INEC, they said their observations so far showed that
there had been no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process.
According to them, any plot to change
the results would contravene the letter and spirit of the Abuja Accord,
to which both major parties committed themselves.
The statement read,”The governments of
the United States and the United Kingdom would be very concerned by any
attempts to undermine the independence of the electoral commission
(INEC) or its Chairman, Prof (Attahiru Jega); or in any way distort the
expressed will of the Nigerian people.
“Our governments welcome the largely
peaceful vote on March 28. The Nigerian people have shown a commendable
determination to register their vote and choose their leaders.
PDP rejects results in Kano, six other states
The PDP, apparently sensing defeat had
earlier on Monday called on INEC to cancel the results in Kano, Gombe,
Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina, Bauchi and Kogi states.
The party said its call was necessitated by what it called massive irregularities in the seven states.
The Deputy National Chairman of the
party, Uche Secondus, at a news conference in Abuja alleged that
irregularities such as underaged voting, night voting and harassment of
PDP supporters took place in the states.
But in Rivers State where the state
chapter of the APC also called for the cancellation of the elections,
INEC said it had sent a three-man committee to investigate alleged
irregularities that characterised the conduct of the polls.
The committee headed by the
Supervisory National Commissioner for the state, Thelma Iremirem, has
M.K Hammanga and Lai Olurode as members.
A statement by the Secretary to the
commission, Augusta Ogakwu, explained that the action was necessitated
by the call for the cancellation of the elections in the state by the
APC.
Ogakwu said in the statement that the members of the committee had left for a fact-finding mission to the state.
The statement read, “Further to the
allegation made by the APC on the conduct of the presidential and
National Assembly elections on Saturday in Rivers State and its call
for the cancellation of the exercise, INEC has set up a fact-finding
mission to ascertain the veracity of the claims and allegations and to
advise the commission and the Chief Electoral Commissioner/Returning
Officer for the presidential elections.”
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