Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner of the 2023 presidential election, after a weekend of election that was largely disputed by main opposition parties.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the results in the wee hours of Wednesday.
According to the results announced by Yakubu, Tinubu scored a total of 8,794,726 votes to beat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who polled 6,984,520, while the candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) came a distant fourth with 1,496,687 votes.
The declaration by Nigeria’s electoral body came after calls for outright cancellation of the polls by main opposition parties.
Earlier on Tuesday, vice presidential candidates of the Labour Party and the PDP, Datti Baba-Ahmed and Ifeanyi Okowa, had jointly called for the cancellation of the polls at a press conference held in Nigeria’s capital, just while the collation of results was going on.
They also demanded that the INEC Chief step aside, as they had lost confidence in his handling of the process.
Prof. Yakubu, however, pressed on with the collation of results, and subsequently declared Tinubu President-elect.
Total Registered Voters: 93,469,008
Total Accredited Voters: 25,286,616
Total Valid Votes: 24,025,940
Total Votes Cast: 24,965,218
Total Rejected Votes: 939,277.
