INEC Presents Certificate Of Return To Buhari, Osinbajo

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday presented the Certificate of Return to the president-elect and winner of the just concluded presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari.

The INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood, presented the Certificate to President Buhari and the vice-president-elect, Yemi Osinbajo, at the International Conference Center in Abuja.

Concise News reports that the INEC chairman said that the President and his vice will receive their certificate of return after declaring the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as President-elect, following final collation of results in the early hours of Wednesday.

Yakubu said: “Ladies and gentlemen, in fulfillment of the electoral act which says that a certificate of return shall be issued not less than seven days to the declaration of the winner, I hereby announce that the certificate of return will be issued to the President-elect and Vice President-elect at 2pm today in this very hall.”

Buhari, who is the incumbent President, defeated the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, to emerge winner in the keenly contested poll.

Announcing the final results of the election on Wednesday, Professor Mahmood said President Buhari polled a total of 15,191,847 to defeat his closest rival and the PDP candidate, Atiku, who polled 11,262,978.

From start, Buhari proved to be the man to beat, leading all other candidates and ending with a wide margin of almost four million votes ahead of Atiku, and drawing his largest block of votes from the core Northern states.