President Muhammadu Buhari has recorded a landslide victory in the Saturday’s presidential election according to the results declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The collation, which was in the second day yesterday, saw Buhari, who is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), securing a total of 15,106,789 votes in the 36 states and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The APC candidate won 19 states while his main challenger, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led in 17 states and Abuja. Atiku also scored a total of 11,068,323 votes. President Buhari defeated Atiku with a margin of 4,038,566 votes to secure a second term in office.
The states where Buhari won are Ekiti, Osun, Kwara, Nasarawa, Kogi, Gombe, Yobe, Niger, Jigawa, Kaduna, Bauchi, Ogun, Kano, Katsina, Lagos, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and Borno states. The PDP candidate won in Ondo, Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi, Anambra, Oyo, Adamawa, Edo, Benue, Imo, Taraba, Plateau, Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta, Akwa Ibom, and Cross River states. President Buhari recorded landslide victory in Kano and Katsina states. INEC Collation Officer in Kano State, Prof. Magaji Garba, the Vice-Chancellor, Federal University, Gusau, Zamfara State, said Buhari polled 1,464,768 votes to defeat Atiku who secured 391,593 votes. Similarly, INEC also announced that Buhari won the election in Katsina by overwhelming margin. According to Prof. Fatima Mukhtar, the Collation Officer for the state, Buhari polled 1,232,133 votes to defeat PDP’s Atiku who scored 308,056 votes. In Jigawa, President Buhari polled 794,738 votes to win the polls while Atiku scored 289,895 votes. In Kaduna, APC’s Buhari polled 993,445 votes to defeat PDP’s Atiku, who scored 649,612 votes. Donald Duke of Social Democratic Party (SDP) was third with 1,737 votes. In Anambra, Atiku led with 524, 738 votes against Buhari who secured 33,298 votes.
The PDP also won the presidential poll in Oyo State. Atiku polled 366,690 votes to defeat Buhari who scored 365,229 votes. In Adamawa, Atiku’s home state, PDP polled 410,266 votes to defeat the APC candidate who scored 378,078 votes. President Buhari also recorded massive victory in Bauchi State, having polled 798,428 votes against Atiku’s 209,313 votes. In Lagos, Buhari polled 580,825 votes to defeat Atiku who scored 448,015 votes while Mr. Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress (AAC) got 8, 910 votes to come out in the third position. Collation Officer for the election, Prof. Felix Salako, said that total registered voters in Lagos was 6, 313, 507 out of which 1,196, 490 were accredited.
Similarly, INEC also announced that Atiku won the election in Edo. According to Prof. Ndowa Lale, the Collation Officer for the state at the National Collation Centre, Atiku polled 275,691 votes to Buhari who scored 267,691 votes. APC was declared winner of the presidential poll in Ogun State with 281,762 votes. The state Collation Officer, Prof. Joseph Adeola, said Atiku’s PDP scored 194,655 votes to place second. Atiku also defeated Buhari in Benue. Atiku polled 356,817 votes to defeat Buhari who scored 347,668 votes. Atiku also won in Taraba and Plateau states.
In Taraba, Atiku polled a total of 374,743 votes in the state, while Buhari polled 324,906 votes. In Plateau, the former vice president won the presidential election in the state after scoring 548,665 votes compared to Buhari’s 468, 555 votes. Buhari scored 612,371 votes in Niger to defeat Atiku who polled 218,052 votes. Prof. Anjela Mary, the State Collation Officer for the Presidential election, who is the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Lokoja, said that the number of valid votes was 851,937 while 45,039 votes were rejected.
She also said the total number of votes cast was 896,976. In the results declared by INEC, Atiku defeated Buhari in Delta, Cross River and Akwa Ibom.
The PDP won in Delta with 594,068 votes against APC’s 221,292 votes while the opposition party secured 395,832 votes in Akwa Ibom against APC’s 175,429. Atiku polled 295,737 votes to defeat Buhari who garnered 117,302 votes in Cross River. In Bayelsa, the PDP also won as Atiku polled a total of 197,933 votes to beat Buhari of APC who polled 118,821 votes. Atiku also won in Rivers with 473,971 votes against the President’s 150,710 votes. President Buhari polled 836,496 votes to beat Atiku who scored 71,788 votes in Borno. In Zamfara, Buhari defeated Atiku as the APC polled 438,682 votes against PDP’s 125,423 votes. The President also won in Kebbi where APC polled 581,552 votes to defeat PDP’s 154,282 votes. It was also victory for President Buhari in Sokoto as the APC scored the highest votes of 490,333 while his closest rival, Atiku, scored 361,604 votes out of the 871,891 total votes cast while 54, 049 votes were voided.
The APC candidate scored 219,231 votes in Ekiti State and 347,634 in Osun while Atiku came second with 154,032 votes and 337,377 votes in the two states respectively. The PDP candidate, however, won in Abuja with 259,997 votes to Buhari’s 152,224 votes. Atiku lost Kwara State with a wide margin, scoring a paltry 138,184 votes as against Buhari’s 308,984 votes. The APC presidential candidate beat his PDP rival with a slim margin in Osun State, scoring 289,903 votes, while Atiku got 283,847 votes, a margin of 6,156 votes. In Nasarawa, APC scored 289,903 votes to again beat PDP, which got 283,847. In Kogi State, it was victory for the President as APC polled 285,894 votes while PDP secured 218,207 votes. In Gombe, the gap was too wide between the two – 402,961 votes for APC and 138,484 for PDP. Atiku scored 275,901 votes in Ondo State while Buhari got 241,769 votes.
He also got 219,698 in Abia State while Buhari scored, 85,058 votes. In Yobe State, Buhari scored 497,914 votes while Atiku had 50,763 votes. The returning officer for Ekiti State, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, who is the Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, said a total of 393,709 votes were cast in the presidential election, out of which 381,132 votes were valid while 12, 577 votes were rejected due to multiple voting. Prof. Oluwatoyi Ogundipe, the Vice Chancellor of the University who collated the Osun result, said out of 731,882 votes cast, 714,682 were valid while 17,200 were rejected. Prof. Ogundipe further disclosed that a total of 12,082 votes were cancelled due to over voting.
In Nasarawa State, the returning officer, Prof. Azubuike Nwankwo said out of 580,778 votes cast, a total of 157,591 votes were cancelled due to “over voting and gangsterism.” The cancelled votes, according to him, affected seven local government areas in 85 polling units. Some party agents pointed out the discrepancies in the number of accredited votes and figures returned. They also queried the number of cancelled votes, especially in Nasarawa State where they observed that voting commenced late due to malfunctioning of card readers. The issue of over-voting was queried as well since INEC adopted simultaneous accreditation and voting process.
The performances of candidates of the Young Peoples Party (YPP), Prof. Kingsley Moghalu; Fela Durotoye of Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), and Omoyele Sowore of the African Action Congress (AAC) were not impressive. In Enugu State, Atiku polled a total of 355,553 votes against Buhari’s 54,423 votes. Announcing the result, the state’s Presidential Returning Officer and Vice Chancellor of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra state, Prof. Joseph Ahaneku said the number of invalid votes stood at 30,049, while valid votes stood at 421,914. In Ebonyi, Atiku defeated Buhari in the election. The PDP garnered a total of 258, 575 votes as against APC’s 90,726 votes. The Presidential Election Collation Officer in the state, Prof. Chukwuemeka Eze, said PDP won in 12 LGAs, leaving APC with victory in Ikwo.
