Tension As Buhari shoots ahead

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday released results of 19 states in last Saturday’s presidential election with the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, posting 8.5 million votes against President Goodluck Jonathan’s 6.4 million.

In the exercise presided over by the INEC chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, the early results saw the APC candidate, leading President Jonathan, who is running for re-election on the platform of his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Breakdown of the results aired live on many television stations showed the two presidential candidates, running neck to neck, with Gen. Buhari, winning 10 of the 19 states released.
The states won by the APC include Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, Kwara and Kaduna.
Others are Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Kogi.
The states won by the PDP include Ekiti, Enugu, FCT, Nassarawa and Anambra. Others are Imo, Abia, Akwa Ibom and Plateau.
Before the announcement, the INEC chairman, who worked into the Situation Room by few minutes to 2.00pm, had enumerated the processes that led to the final collation of results in the states, before permitting the State Collation Officers for Presidential Election (SCOPE), to announce the results from the states.
Presenting the results from Ekiti, the first state to hand in its result, the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA), Professor Adebiyi Daramola, said out of a total number of 723,255 registered voters from the 16 local government areas, 323,739 voters were accredited.
Professor Adebiyi, while giving details of the result, said the APC presidential candidate polled a total number of 120,331 votes while his PDP counterpart scored 176,466 votes to lead the pack in the state, adding that the total valid votes stood at 300,691 while 9,139 votes were rejected from the cancelled elections in six polling units.
For Ogun State, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Duro Oni, who served as the returning officer, said 14 political parties participated in the election with a total number of 709,409 registered voters, adding that out of the number, there were 594,975 accredited voters.
Professor Oni, said while the APC presidential candidate recorded 308,290, the PDP candidate trailed with 207,950, adding that a total number of 533,172 stood as the valid votes, 559,613 as the total votes cast, while 26,441 amounted to the rejected vote from the canceled results in one polling unit.
Presenting the result from Enugu State, the Vice Chancellor of Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Professor Hilary Odo Edoga, said 14 political parties participated in the election with a total number of 1,381,563 registered voters, stressing that the total number of valid votes stood at 573,173 from the 585,632 total number of votes cast.
Professor Edoga further noted that while President Jonathan got large chunk of 553,003 votes, his APC counterpart trailed with14,157 votes, adding that PDP won in most of the 17 local government areas in the state.
According to the returning officer of Nasarawa State, the Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Lokoja, Professor Nasir Abdul, President Jonathan equally won majority of the votes in the state, noting that out of the total number 1,222,054 registered voters, 562,959 were accredited to vote.
Professor Nasir further added that the APC candidate got 236,838, while the ruling party, PDP, polled a total vote of 273,460, stressing that the state recorded the highest number of cancelled votes, which stood at 79,386, occasioned by snatching of card readers and other electoral offences, just as he noted that the total votes cast stood at 521,641.
In Kogi State, the Vice Chancellor, University of Abuja, Professor MB Aduku, announced that the APC presidential candidate led with a total number of 264,851 to relegate the PDP with a total vote of 149,987 to the second position, adding that the state recorded a total valid votes of 421,328 from the 339,287 total votes cast.
The APC presidential candidate also led in Ondo State, according to the Vice Chancellor of University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Professor Olusola Oyewale, who presented the result.
He said while the APC got 299,889 votes, the PDP scored 251,368, noting that the valid votes stood at 561,056, just as the total number of rejected votes were 21,379. He added that the total number of votes cast stood at 582,435, just as there were 10,118 cancelled votes from 17 polling units.
In Osun State, the VC of Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Professor Isaac Asuzu, said out of the 1,378,116 registered voters, 683,169 were accredited, announcing that while APC polled 383,603, the PDP trailed with 249,929 votes, just as the total number of valid votes stood at 642,615.
According to Professor Michael Faborode, former VC of OAU, President Jonathan, who won in the FCT, got 157,195 votes to relegate his APC counterpart, who trailed closely with a total number of 146,399 votes.records 6.4m votes, clares 8 states, FCT