…as results collation enters home stretch with four more states to go

Presidential flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is in the lead in Nigeria’s keenly contested presidential election after official results came in from 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

Results presented by State Collation Officers for the Presidential Election (SCOPs) before the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, indicated that Tinubu polled 8,120,391 from 32 states and the FCT.

Tinubu is closely being followed by the flagbearear of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, who scored 6,486,000 from the 32 states and the FCT.

Labour Party’s candidate, Peter Obi followed closely with 5,406,931 votes from the 32 states and the FCT while New Nigeria Peoples Party’s Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso polled 1,478,985 votes.

The four remaining states were currently being presented by SCOPs at the national collation centre as of 1:00am on Wednesday.

Section 134 of the Nigerian Constitution says a presidential candidate can only be announced as the winner if he or she has the majority of votes cast at the election; and has no less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in at least two-thirds of all the states in the Federation and the FCT.

But sub-section 3 of the same section states explicitly that “in default of a candidate duly elected in accordance with subsection (2) of this section, there shall be a second election”.