Buhari…the president-elect

INEC Chairman Yakubu declares winner at 4:39am

Muhammadu Buhari has won the presidential election.

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman Mahmood Yakubu at exactly 4:39am declared Buhari winner of last Saturday’s election.

The President won 15,191,847 votes to retain his job. His closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 11,262,978.

Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate won in 19 states. Atiku won in 17 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Buhari will collect his Certificate of Return at 2pm today.

The commission adjourned its collation and announcement of results at the International Conference Centre, Abuja at 12.16am after taking the results from Rivers State —the last to come in. It adjourned till 3am.

Yakubu said the commission wanted to beat its 2015 record when it concluded the process at 4am.

Buhari, who was at the APC Presidential Campaign Council secretariat this morning, thanked Nigerians for giving him the opportunity to continue to serve.

With him were: Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, party Chairman Adams Oshiomhole, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Rotimi Amaechi, among other party leaders.

Yesterday’s collation opened with Niger State, which went to the APC with 612,371 votes. PDP scored 218, 052.

There were 2,375,568 registered voters across the 15 local government areas of the state and 911, 964 voters were accredited. The state recorded a total vote of 896,976 and 851,937 valid votes. Forty-five votes were rejected; 71,200 were cancelled.

In Jigawa State, Buhari scored 794,738 as against Atiku’s 289, 895 votes.

With 27 local government areas, Jigawa had 2,104,889 registered voters; 1,171,801 were accredited to vote; 1,149,922 voted. Of the votes, 1,106,244 were valid and 43, 678 were rejected.

The APC candidate also won in Kaduna State with 993,445 votes as against PDP’s 640, 612.

Atiku fought back in Anambra State, garnering 524,738 votes as against APC’s 33,298.

He won with a slim margin in Oyo State where the PDP polled 366,690 as against APC’s 365,229.

Atiku’s home state, Adamawa, gave the PDP 410,266 votes. Buhari got 378,078.

The 21 council areas in Adamawa had 1,959,322 registered voters; 874,920 voters were accredited. There were 811,534 valid votes; 49,222 were rejected.

The President won in Bauchi with 798,428 votes. Atiku scored 209,313. Valid votes were 1,024, 307; 37,648 were rejected. Votes cast stood at 1,061, 955

The APC beat the PDP in Lagos State with 580,825 votes; PDP scored 448,015.

The ruling party also secured victory for his candidate in Ogun State where it scored 281,762 as against PDP’s 194, 655. The registered number of voters in the Gateway State was 2,336,887; 613,399 were accredited and 605,938 voted.

Edo State, with 18 local government areas and 2,150,127 registered voters, went to Atiku with 275, 691 votes. Buhari scored 267,842 votes.

For the poll, 604,915 were accredited. There were 560,711 valid votes. The rejected ballot stood at 38, 517, leaving the total vote cast at 599, 228.

The number of votes that were cancelled in 48 polling units stood at 42,176.

In Benue State, PDP got a narrow victory margin over the ruling party with 356,817 votes as against APC’s 347,668.

Edo, with a voter population of 2, 391,276, has a total vote cast of 763,872. The valid votes were 728,912. The rejected votes were 34,960 and 122,989 votes were cancelled in 172 polling units.

Atiku won Imo State with 334,923 votes as against Buhari’s 140,463 votes.

There were 2,037,569 registered would-be voters; 585,741 were accredited to vote. The valid votes were 511,586 and 31,191 votes were rejected. The number of votes cast stood at 542,777; 63,048 were cancelled in 97 polling units in 12 council areas.

Plateau State also gave its vote to Atiku who scored 548,665. Buhari scored 468,555.

The state had 2,423, 381 registered voters and 1,074,042 were accredited.

The valid votes were 1,034,853 of which 1,063,862 voted. The number of rejected votes stood at 28,009.

Kano went to Buhari who scored 1,464,768 against Atiku’s 392,593.

The Northwest state, where 5,381,581 were registered to vote, recorded the highest turnout with 2,006,410 accredited voters.

The votes cast were 1,964,751. The valid votes were 1,891,134. The rejected votes were 73,617 and the cancelled votes were 43,900, across 69 polling units.

Katsina, Buhari’s home state, also went the way of Buhari, who scored 1,232,133 against Atiku’s 308,056.

It has 3,219,422 registered voters and 1,628,865 were accredited for the election.

The total valid votes in Katsina is 1,555,473 and 1,619,185 cast their ballots.

The rejected votes were 63,712 and the cancelled votes stood at 12,027.

Taraba went to the PDP with 374,743 votes as against APC’s 326 996 votes.

The total registered votes were 1,777,105. The accredited voters stood at 756 111.

The valid votes were 712 877 and 28,687 were rejected.