President Buhari wins second term bid

President Muhammadu Buhari has won his re-election bid after polling 15,191,847 votes to defeat his closest rival, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party in the presidential poll conducted on February 23.

Atiku’s total votes amounted to 11,262,978 to lose the election with a margin of 3,928,869 votes.

The Independent National Electoral Commission’s chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmood, declared Buhari’s as winner having collated the votes from all the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory released on Wednesday morning.

Having also met all the requirements the constitution requires, Buhari will be presented with the certificate of return at 2pm today.

Nigeria’s constitution stipulates that presidential candidate must have nothing less than 25 per cent of votes cast in at least two-thirds or 24 states of the federation. The candidate should also have majority votes in the election.

Going by the figure released by INEC at the national collation centre in Abuja on Wednesday morning, the incumbent President has more than 25 per cent of the election in over 24 states.

He also defeated his closest rival with 3,928,869 votes.

Atiku also had 25 per cent of the total votes cast in over 24 states but lost the poll when the simple majority rule condition is applied.

While President Buhari won in 19 states, Atiku won in 17 states and the FCT.

The states Buhari won are Bauchi, Borno, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Osun, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.

Atiku won in Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Imo, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba and the FCT.