30th March, 2015
Eromosele Ebhomele
The presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, seems to be coasting home to victory in the keenly contested presidential election held at the weekend, according to official results so far declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, at the time of this report.
As at Monday morning, Buhari had a clear lead in 19 states and Abuja, the country’s capital, while the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, was winning in 13 states of the Federation.
The results showed that Buhari had a comfortable lead in Bauchi, Borno, Abuja, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
On the other hand, President Goodluck Jonathan, as at Monday morning, was taking the lead in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Imo, Nasarawa and Plateau.
Full results of some states such as Anambra, Rivers, and Bayelsa had not been released at the time of filing this report.
However, gratifying enough for the All Progressives Congress is the fact that it scored 25 percent in many of the states where its presidential candidate lost.
In Abuja, Kogi, the State Collation Officer, Prof. Adikwu Michael, said Buhari polled 264,851 out of the total of 439,287 votes cast, to defeat President Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party, who had 149,987 votes.
But in Nasarawa State, the final presidential result showed that while the APC scored 236,838, the PDP scored 273,460 in a very tight election.
In Katsina, the returning officer, Professor James Ayatsa of the Federal University Katsina, announced that General Buhari scored 885, 988 while President Goodluck Jonathan scored 143, 904 votes.
In Ondo State, the APC scored 299,889 while the PDP had 251, 368 votes.
As released by the Returning Officer for Oyo State, the APC got 528,620 votes, while the PDP had 303, 376 votes.
While Nigerians await the final collation and announcement, there is much apprehension across the country.
But the Professor Attahiru Jega-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has continued to warn Nigerians against declaring fake results until the final results are released.
He promised that the result would be released today.
Meanwhile, Buhari has flown to Abuja to witness the final collation of the presidential election results from all the states of the federation, which Prof Jega said would begin at 12 noon today.
It is at the end of the exercise that the final result would be declared.
