Kudos and knocks have continued to greet the collation of results of last Saturday’s Presidential/National Assembly Elections as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the outcome of the exercise in some of the states, in Abuja Sunday.
This is just as the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate; Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu commended INEC for being on top of its game, and called on security agencies to deal decisively with subversive elements.
But the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate, Atiku Abubakar, tasked the commission on transparency in the collation of results.
Specifically, Atiku and Labour Party both decried the delay in the uploading of results on INEC Results Viewing (IReV) Center.
In all of this, Tinubu, according to results so far released by INEC is ahead of other contestants.
APC candidate who won Ekiti state is in an early lead in Niger winning four of the six local government areas released, and also leading in Katsina and Borno, while Atiku follows closely winning in Osun and in early lead in Yobe.
Also, the LP candidate, Peter Obi, made a good show of the contest in Ebonyi (where results in seven local government areas were released) and also in Edo state, with victory in 8 of 9 local government areas released by the commission.
Niger
According to reports from Niger state, Asiwaju Tinubu won in four local government areas out of the six local governments officially declared Sunday at the INEC headquarters in Minna.
The results were received by the state’s Returning Officer, Professor C E I Alawa, alongside the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Alhaji Ahmed Yushau Garki.
The four LGAs won by the APC are Gbako, Wushishi, Gurara and Rafi while PDP won Katcha and Edati local government areas.
According to the results, APC polled 12,436 votes to defeat the PDP which got 11,017 votes, in Wushishi APC got 11,504; PDP 8,868, and APC having 16, 963 in Rafi local government area with PDP getting 9,581.
However, PDP led in Edati local government area of the state with total votes of 14,779 as against the 10,508 votes secured by APC. PDP also won Katcha local government area with 13,268 votes as against 10,795 polled by APC.
Ebonyi
Mr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) is so far leading in seven local government areas of Ebonyi state.
In an ongoing collation of presidential result by the Independent Electoral Commission in the state, that started few minutes before 4 p.m., Mr. Obi is leading with a wide margin.
Out of the seven local government areas, two have been authenticated by the state returning officer, Prof. Charles Igwe, Vice Chancellor University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).
According to the results released by the returning officer, APC polled 1261, APGA 133, and LP got 16186. In Izzi LGA, APC polled 11779 while LP scored 28, 931 with PDP managing a paltry 789 votes.
Kwankwaso leads in Kano
Also in Kano state, the presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, is leading in 16 of the 18 LGAs so far released, while Tinubu of the APC won two.
It was also gathered that both the PDP and LP candidates were yet to win any local government area as at the time of this report.
Borno
And from Borno state, the APC candidate is in the eerily lead with 13,404 valid votes from Gubio, Magumeri and, Kaga local government areas of the state.
Following on the trail are PDP with 8,134 votes; NNPP got 227 votes while the LP candidate had 02 votes.
INEC Returning Officer in the state, Prof. Jude Tsammani Rabo, who is the Vice Chancellor, Federal University, Wukari, Taraba state, announced this Sunday in Maiduguri.
Ekiti
And from Ekiti state, INEC announced the APC as scoring 201, 494 votes with the PDP scoring 89,554 votes.
The Returning Officer, who also doubled as Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila Orangun, Osun state, Professor Akeem Lasisi, announced the result Sunday in Abuja.
He said only two wards had their votes cancelled for bypassing BVAS and over-voting.
And no sooner was the results announced, than the INEC Chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu announcing that collation of results would continue tomorrow (Monday).
Osun
In a related development, the PDP presidential candidate defeated his APC counterpart in Osun state.
Announcing the results Sunday in Osogbo, the Returning Officer, Prof Tolulope Ogunsola, said the PDP got 354,366 votes while APC had 343, 945 and LP 23,283.
Giving a breakdown, Ogunsola put the registered voters at 1,954,800, the accredited voters at 759,362 and the valid votes 733,203.
The PDP won 20 out of 30 local government areas with Atiku winning in Boluwaduro, Ifedayo, Ila, Odo-Otin, Irepodun, Orolu, Ede-North, Ede-South, Ife-South, Ife-North, Ola-Oluwa, and Ayedire LGAs.
Others are Obokun, Oriade, Atakumosa-East, Atakumosa-West, Ifelodun, Egbedore, Ilesa-East, and Ilesa-West local government areas.
Similarly, the APC won in Ife Central, Ife East, Ayedaade, Iwo, Ejigbo, Boripe, Irewole, Isokan, Osogbo, and Olorunda local government areas.
A major highlight of the result was the defeat of Senate’s spokesperson, Senator Ajibola Basiru, who was defeated by the PDP’s Fadeyi Olubiyi.
While Basiru who is representing Osun Central senatorial district polled 117,609, Olubiyi of the PDP won with 134,229 votes.
The result, as announced by Prof Ibraheem Usman, showed the LP scored 2,292.
PDP tasks INEC
Meanwhile, the PDP has tasked INEC on transparent collation of the presidential election results.
PDP also claimed that from its preliminary reports on the results coming from the polls, it is confident that its presidential candidate is already coasting to victory.
The statement reads in part: “The PDP notes that Atiku Abubakar is securing the highest number of valid votes cast as well as the statutory 25% in at least two third of the States of the Federation to ultimately brace the tape on the first ballot.
“Our Party appreciates Nigerians from across the country for putting their avowed solidarity and support for Atiku Abubakar into action by coming out en masse to give their votes to the PDP, irrespective of ethnicity, creed, age and even political affiliations.
“From preliminary results, it is clear that Atiku Abubakar’s message of hope, unity, security and rebuilding of our nation has been positively received by Nigerians who are eager to embrace a new era under a purposeful leadership which the PDP and Atiku Abubakar embody.
“The PDP assures Nigerians that the hope which Atiku Abubakar symbolizes as well as the very onerous task of unifying and returning our country to the path of stability, national cohesion and economic prosperity will soon begin.
“Our Party therefore calls on INEC to ensure very transparent and credible collation process in such a manner that guarantees that all votes count and that the Will of the people is respected.
“INEC should not only ensure prompt uploading of results but also continue to make the result viewing portal available to the public in the interest of transparency.
“The PDP congratulates Nigerians for peaceful elections despite the threats, resort to violence and desperation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to scuttle the process, while urging them to remain calm and resilient until the final declaration of results.”
Tinubu lauds INEC
Reacting to the alarm raised by the opposition parties, the APC presidential candidate asked the security agencies to deal with anyone seeking to destabilise the country with reckless subversive and obnoxious statements.
Tinubu said this in a statement by the Director, Media & Publicity of the APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Bayo Onanuga,in Abuja Sunday.
The APC-PCC said: “We call on the security agencies to be alert and ruthlessly deal with anyone seeking to destabilise our country with reckless, subversive and obnoxious statements on the social media, TV and radio platforms.
“We suspect that the opposition parties making unnecessary fuss over the results of the poll are only afraid of facing the reality of their defeat. Elections are not a do or die affair. They are meant to be won by some and lost by some.
“The 2023 Presidential election has been successfully conducted and results announced at polling units, wards, local councils and at the state level.
“We advise politicians to allow the remaining part of the process to go on without intimidation and harassment of INEC.”
“The brazen attempt to discredit this election that is adjudged to be the most peaceful, credible, open, transparent, free and fair in the history of our country will fail.
“We have noticed the disingenuous attempts by the opposition parties, spokesmen of their campaign councils and their hired talking heads on Television and Radio Stations to discredit the presidential and National Assembly elections conducted nationwide yesterday.
“Two persons we consider as respectable citizens, Professor Pat Utomi and Director-General of Peter Obi Campaign Council, Mr. Akin Osuntokun threw caution to the wind by their inciting and incendiary comments on social media and TV stations where they have been making baseless and irresponsible allegations of electoral manipulations and other malpractices against our party and the electoral umpire, all in a bid to cause disaffection and civil unrest in the country.
“We must also stress that we have noticed many partisan talking heads claiming to be Election Observers on radio and TV stations who are presenting skewed and patently false narratives about the general conduct of the election across the country.
“Both Labour Party and PDP have accused INEC of conspiracy to rig election result in favour of our party, anchoring their allegation on the agency’s inability to upload election results on its website.
“While we call on INEC to expedite action on the process of uploading the results, we want to state categorically that there is nothing unusual about the seeming delay.
“INEC returning officers bringing the results to the National Collation Centre from the 36 states, may be contending with possible travel logistics as witnessed on Day One of the collation on Sunday, when only Ekiti state was ready with its result. There could also be technical issues with INEC Results Viewing Portal which we are sure the commission will quickly resolve.
“It is worth stating that election results have been announced and made public at polling units and duly signed by accredited party agents in line with the Electoral Law. There is no political party that does not have election results from all the over 176,000 polling units across the country except for few locations election didn’t hold. The Abuja Collation is merely ceremonial.
“While the law stipulates that the INEC Chairman who is the National Returning Officer for the Presidential election should declare the result, it is also a fact that no party can claim ignorance about its performance from every polling unit through their Situation Rooms updates from party agents,” the statement further added.
Fresh polls hold on Monday in 7 Abia LGAs
And from Abia state, INEC announced it would conduct fresh presidential and National Assembly elections in various polling units in seven LGAs Monday.
INEC Administration Secretary in the state, Mr Clement Oha, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Umuahia, Sunday, and put the time at 8:00 am
He identified the affected LGAs as: Obingwa, Osisioma, Aba North, Aba South, Umuahia North, Ohafia, and Arochukwu.
The Administration Secretary said the affected polling units had been communicated.
He explained that the reported skirmishes in the affected polling units during Saturday’s election necessitated the fresh poll.
Oha said: “We had various degrees of discrepancies with respect to the procedures that were violent to some extent.
“The Commission in their wisdom felt that the credibility of the election should not be compromised, and that there should be no winner by default. So, election must take place in the affected polling units tomorrow (Monday)”.
When asked to identify the number of polling units affected, the Administration Secretary, said it was still being processed.
On the whereabouts of the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of the state, Professor Ike Uzochukwu, he said the REC must have been tired and needed to rest.
“We were in a meeting here up till 2:00 am when I left. I learnt he left by 5:00 am. Certainly, he is a human being, and may be is tired,” he said.
