Ahead of the full declaration of the results, the national chairman of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Uche Secondus, has rejected the results of the presidential election currently being announced by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as “incorrect and unacceptable. At the national Collation Center in Abuja, where the final results are being tallied, INEC announced results from nine states and the FCT, Abuja, which showed President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) with an early lead over main challenger, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
Three of the nine results announced on Monday – Ondo, FCT Abuja and Abia were in favour of the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar. President Muhammadu Buhari of the APC won the remaining six – Osun, Kogi, Gombe, Ekiti, Nasarawa, Yobe and Kwara states. But Secondus at the party’s presidential campaign office, Legacy House, Abuja, said some of the polling units result from states, including Nasarawa, narrowly won by Buhari had been tampered with.
The PDP also rejected the results from Kogi, where participation was less than 30%, resulting from violence that marred voting in Dekina local government area. The PDP has taken exception to the fact that the INEC Collation officer and the REC and other stakeholders reached an agreement that since no election held in many polling units because of violence, the results of Dekina would not be part of the final tally. The party expressed surprised that the Collation Officer went against what was agreed, and included figures from Dekina which gave victory to the APC.
Secondus said that the party’s collation centres have all ‘original results’ from every polling unit, in every ward, in every Local Government Area (LGA). He said the international community is aware of the results. He accused the presidency and the APC, and INEC officials of trying to “alter” the course of history and disenfranchise our people through the cancellation and manipulation of figures for results already announced at polling units, nationwide, in LGAs, where PDP, had commanding votes.
He also alleged that the APC in collusion with INEC had taken aggressive steps, using the elements of state power, such as the police, DSS, the army and the EFCC, to silence the voices of the people.
Osun
Reg Voters: 1,674,729
Accredited: 732,984
Total Votes Cast: 731,882
Total Valid Votes: 714,682
Rejected Votes: 17200
AAC: 1,022
ADC: 1,525
ADP: 9,057
APC: 347,634
PDP: 337,377
SDP: 259
Winner: Buhari
Ekiti
Reg Voters: 899,919
Accredited: 395,741
Total Votes Cast: 393,709
Total Valid Votes: 381,132
Rejected Votes: 12,577
AAC: 400
ADC: 406
ADP: 126
APC: 219,231
PDP: 154,032
SDP: 48
Winner: Buhari
FCT Abuja
Reg Voters: 1,335,015
Accredited: 467,784
Total Votes Cast: 451,408
Total Valid Votes: 423,951
Rejected Votes: 27,457
AAC: 583
ADC: 246
ADP: 145
APC: 152,224
PDP: 259,997
SDP: 410
Winner: Atiku
Kwara
Reg Voters: 1,401 895
Accredited: 489,482
Total Votes Cast: 486,254
Total Valid Votes: 459,676
Rejected Votes: 26,578
AAC: 401
ADC: 456
ADP: 203
APC: 308,984
PDP: 138,184
SDP: 212
*Winner: Buhari
Nasarawa
Reg Voters: 1,509,481
Accredited: 613,720
Total Votes Cast: 599,399
Total Valid Votes: 580,778
Rejected Votes: 18,621
AAC: 75
ADC: 339
ADP: 107
APC: 289,903
PDP: 283,847
SDP: 359
Winner: Buhari
Kogi
Reg Voters: 1,640,449
Accredited: 570,773
Total Votes Cast: 553,496
Total Valid Votes: 521,016
Rejected Votes: 32,480
AAC: 250
ADC: 4,369
ADP: 499
APC: 285,894
PDP: 218,207
SDP: 2,226
Winner: Buhari
Gombe
Reg Voters: 1,385,191
Accredited: 604,240
Total Votes Cast: 580,649
Total Valid Votes: 554,203
Rejected Votes: 26,446
AAC: 165
ADC: 248
ADP: 135
APC: 402,961
PDP: 138,484
SDP: 248
Winner: Buhari
Ondo
Reg Voters: 1,812,567
Accredited: 598,586
Total Votes Cast: 586,827
Total Valid Votes: 555,994
Rejected Votes: 30,833
AAC:4,414
ADC:6,296
ADP:1,005
APC:241,769
PDP:275,901
SDP:1,618
Winner: Atiku
Abia
Reg Voters: 1,793,861
Accredited: 361,561
Total Votes Cast: 344,471
Total Valid Votes: 323,291
Rejected Votes: 21,180
AAC: 212
ADC: 336
ADP: 131
APC: 85,058
PDP: 219,698
SDP: 472
Winner: Atiku
Yobe
Reg Voters: 1,365,913
Accredited: 601,059
Total Votes Cast: 586,137
Total Valid Votes: 559,365
Rejected Votes: 26,772
AAC: 137
ADC: 162
ADP: 107
APC: 497,914
PDP: 50,763
SDP: 180
Winner: Buhari
More results are still expected but the But the PDP is already crying foul. “All results currently being announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is incorrect thus unacceptable to our party and people,” Secondus said in a statement, on Monday. He claimed that Nigerian government officials and members of APC have colluded with INEC officers to “alter the course of history and disenfranchise our people through the cancellation and manipulation of figures for results already announced at polling units. Such cancellations and manipulations, Secondus said, were carried “where our party, the PDP, had commanding votes; this must now be resisted by every well-meaning Nigerian.”
Secondus’s statement on Monday echoed that of PDP’s spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan; who, barely 24 hours after voting closed across the country, asked INEC to announce its candidate Atiku Abubakar as the winner of the election in spite of the result not being centrally collated. Ologbondiyan said the delay in the central collation of the presidential election results was a deliberate attempt by the ruling All Progressives Congress and the Nigerian government to swing the election in its favor.
“In delaying the announcement of the results, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu is allowing the APC to turn him into a villain and directly pitching him against the people,” Ologbondiyan said in a statement on Sunday. “He should therefore extricate himself from the rejected APC and be on the side of the people; by immediately announcing the results as already delivered at the polling units and declare, the people’s candidate, Atiku Abubakar, the winner.”
Although INEC has not responded to the Secondus’s claims, but President Buhari told reporters at the airport that Nigerians should wait for INEC to collate and announce the final results. A spokesman for Buhari Campaign team said the electoral body has “done a good job.” The PDP’s comments and attempt to discredit the electoral commission were “an assault on our democracy… The PDP is, in essence and most, unfortunately, saying that if they don’t win fairly then they are willing to tear down the walls to get their way by hook or by crook,” he said. “In spite of this unjustifiable and provocative stance, we are confident that the results by INEC are free and fair.”
