By Banji Ayoola
Official results of last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections as announced by officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, are coming in gradually from across the 36 states of the federation into the National Collation Centre in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Over 70 candidates contested the Presidential election to determine the country’s political leader in the next four years.s
Going by the results, two of the lot, including incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the leading Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are running neck to neck ahead of the other candidates.
It is now certain that either of the two may coast home to victory at the end of the results collation and formal announcement, and would be eventually declared as Nigeria’s President for the next four years.
Live updates of the official Presidential and National Assembly election results as announced by officials at the various wards and local government areas nationwide show Buhari and Atiku leading all the others.
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu commenced the process by calling on the party agents to inspect the materials for the collation of results to ensure that they are in order.
The collation is taking place at the National Collation Centre inside the International Conference Centre in the Nation’s capital Abuja.
Final results and winners state by state as declared by INEC show that results are still being awaited from many states, whose Resident Electoral Commissioners were said to be on the way to Abuja with the formal results.
For instance, when The Radiance visited the office of the Ondo State REC, Dr Rufus Akeju, at Alagbaka in Akure on Monday, he was said to be on his way to Abuja with official results of the elections from the state.
Results gathered so far are: Ekiti State – APC: 219,231; PDP: 154,032; Kwara – APC: 308,984; PDP: 138,184; Lagos – APC: 580,814; PDP: 448,016; Nasarawa – APC: 289,903; PDP: 283,847; FCT – APC: 152,224; PDP: 259,997.
In Lafia, Buhari polled 279,315 votes to defeat Atiku who polled 241,419 votes.
For the first time since 2003, Buhari has won Nasarawa state, defeating Atiku by 37,896 votes thus setting new record in the state. But PDP beats APC in Boko Haram-troubled Madagali.
Also, Atiku has taken an early lead in Benue by emerging winner of seven out of 11 Local Government areas.
The results, which were still being collated across the state, show Atiku leading in Gwer West, Buruku, Logo, Agatu, Apa, Ado, and Obi LGAs.
The results also showed Buhari trailing behind in four local government areas.
Atiku has got 248, 210 votes with Buhari scoring 138, 268 votes in six of the 17 local government areas that make up the state.
