Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been declared the winner of the presidential election held in Nigeria. He beats several other candidates, most notably Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) to emerge Nigeria’s fifth President since 1999.
Tinubu allegedly pulled 8,794,726 votes (36.61%) against Atiku’s 6,984,520 votes (29.07%) and Obi’s 6,101,533 votes (25.40%). The announcement of the final result was given at about 4 a.m. on March 1, when many Nigerians were in slumberland. Most woke up to the news that Tinumbu is now the president-elect.
The presidential election was marred by violence, with scores either killed or injured. Local and international observers are unanimous in their verdict that the election was not free and fair and that the APC manipulated the results using the power of incumbency to torpedo the will of many Nigerians
Before the result itself was announced, the vice presidential candidates of the APC and PDP held a joint conference where they rejected the results INEC was churning out. They also withdrew their agents from the Abuja collation centre.
Also, across Nigeria, Nigerians are already protesting the results, insisting Tinubu was never the man they voted for.
The PDP and LP are expected to fight INEC’s verdict in court.
