INEC declares Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President elect

The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the president-elect.

Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, was declared the president-elect after the 70-year-old polled 8,794,726 votes to win the 2023 presidential election.

Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), polled 8.8 million votes to defeat his closest rivals – Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Obi of Labour Party (LP) and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP).

Fourteen other candidates contested the election, but made little impact.

Announcing the results, Prof. Yakubu said: “That Tinubu Bola Ahmed of the APC, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby declared the winner and returned elected.”

The INEC boss announced that Tinubu and the Vice President-elect Kashim Shettima will get their certificates of return today at 3.00pm.

The announcement of Tinubu’s victory was greeted by celebrations in many parts of the country by millions of Nigerians, who had waited with bated breath since voting ended at the weekend.

Tinubu won votes across the length and breadth of the country, winning in 12 states scattered across five of the country’s six geo-political zones. He did not win in any of the five states in the Southeast, where LP candidate Obi hails from. Obi got the bulk of his 6.1m votes from the Southeast. He took all the five states.

Tinubu won in Ekiti, Ondo, Ogun, Oyo (Southwest); Niger, Benue, Kogi, Kwara (Northcentral); Zamfara, Jigawa (Northwest); Borno (Northeast); and Rivers (Southsouth).

He got 25 per cent of the total valid votes in 27 states, including the 12 states where he won outright.

The states where he got the required spread are: Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Sokoto, Bauchi, Yobe, Kano, Kebbi, Plateau, Gombe, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Katsina, Taraba, Lagos and Osun.

Atiku polled 6,984,520. The PDP candidate won in Yobe, Gombe, Adamawa, Bauchi and Taraba states (Northeast); Katsina, Kaduna, Kebbi, Sokoto states (Northwest); Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa (Southsouth) and Osun state (Southwest).

The PDP government did not win in any state in Northcentral and Southeast regions.

Obi, who garnered 6,101,533 votes, won in Enugu, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi and Imo (Southeast); Lagos (Southwest); Plateau and Nasarawa (Northcentral); Cross River, Edo and Delta (Southsouth), as well as the FCT.

The former Anambra governor did not win in any of the Northeast states.

The NNPP candidate got 1,476,697. Kwankwaso won in Kano (Northcentral)