Atiku leads in states won, Tinubu tops votes cast, as opposition parties demand resignation of INEC boss, Yakubu

Presidential candidate of main opposition, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar leads with the total number of states won of 10, the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is however topping the charts with the total number of votes garnered in 7 states out of the overall 24 announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

This is even as three opposition parties which participated in last Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly elections have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to cancel the exercise over what they described as ‘massive irregularities’ discovered in the polls.

While the results of Saturday’s polls are still being collated by INEC, the outcome of the exercise in 24 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have been announced with the APC

However, as at Tuesday, February 28, the INEC National Commissioner, Festus Okoye, explained that though results from five states are available, the commission expects at least 10 more states to join at the end of Tuesday’s collation.

APC’s presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has won 7 states with the total of 6,708,209 votes in

Jigawa State, Ekiti State, Oyo State, Ondo State, Ogun State, Kwara State and Zamfara State.

 Atiku Abubakar has been able to defeat his counterparts in 10 states, making him the highest out of the three major contenders in the election with the highest number of states. He has been able to poll the total number of 5,359,613 votes.

 Adamawa, Osun, Gombe, Yobe, Katsina, Bauchi, Akwa ibom, Bayelsa, and Sokoto.

Meanwhile, the candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has been able to defeat his counterparts as well in 6 states declared so far by INEC before they want on break. According to INEC, Peter Obi has been able to garner the total votes of 3,158,952.

Below are the states where he has won; Nasarawa, Enugu, Plateau, Lagos, Edo, and Anambra.

Rabiu Kwankwaso, the candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party, has won Kano State so far in the ongoing presidential election with a total votes of 1,428,011.

In a related development, main opposition, the PDP, Labour Party and the Action Democratic Party have asked the Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, to step aside.

The three parties in a joint press conference on Tuesday, in Abuja, alleged that the February 2023 presidential election was marred with violence, rigging and intimidation of voters.

The parties demanded the conduct of a fresh election.

“We are therefore constrained on this development to state that INEC compromised the integrity of this election even before collation commenced at the polling units.

“Section 60 sub-section 5 of the Electoral Act says that the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including a total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballots in a manner as prescribed by the commission.

“A failure to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act and the guidelines makes it imperative that all results recently uploaded on the IReV portal must be updated before they are announced.

“INEC went back on that promise…This election is not free and far from being fair and transparent.

“We shall not be part of the electoral process currently going on at the National Collation Centre and we demand that this sham of an election be immediately cancelled.

“We also call for a fresh election to be carried out by the laid down INEC procedure.

“We, therefore, call on Yakubu to step aside from his role,” the LP National Chairman, Julius Abure, who delivered the position of the three opposition parties, said.

As it is, the APC has now secured 25% or more in the following states: Akwa Ibom, Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Kwara, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Nasarawa, Niger, Kaduna, Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa, Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Kebbi.