The Independent National Electoral
Commission has said that despite the extension of Saturday’s elections
till Sunday in some parts of the country, the results of the
presidential poll will be declared on Monday(today).
INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, gave
the assurance as some of results from wards, local government areas
and states continued to emerge on Sunday.
But in Ekiti State, Jonathan had an easy ride as he beat the APC candidate.
Jega, who gave journalists an update on
the conduct of the polls in Abuja, said that as of Sunday evening,
results of the elections had only been completely collated in two
states, one of which was Ekiti.
He said, “Some people assume that when I
said 48 hours( for the release of the results), it starts from the
morning the elections commenced. It is 48 hours after elections have
ended, like yesterday(Saturday).
“You start counting 48 hours from yesterday (Saturday) when substantial majority of the polling units ended elections.”
The INEC chief expressed satisfaction
over the conduct of the polls, which he said held in a substantial
number of polling units across the country, including the troubled
North-East zone where internally displaced persons voted in
Adamawa, Yobe and Borno states.
“We are pleased that the elections went
on smoothly in a substantial number of polling units across the country,
including the North-East where the commission was also able to conduct
voting for Internally Displaced Persons in the three states of Adamawa,
Yobe and Borno,” Jega said.
He said that out of more than 150,000
card readers used for the conduct of the polls , only 300 failed,
representing about 0.25 per cent of the total number of machines.
“It is also gratifying to note that the
card readers worked well in the majority of polling units, even though
there were areas where difficulties experienced necessitated additional
guidelines to allow for manual accreditation of voters, as announced
yesterday (Saturday),” Jega said.
He stated that manual accreditation was
done in some polling units in Osun, Kebbi, Ekiti, Adamawa, Borno,
Jigawa, Anambra, Akwa Ibom and Ebonyi states.”
Jega said the elections were extended and concluded on Sunday in nine states and the Federal Capital Territory.
Taraba State has the highest number of 116 polling units where the polls were extended.
Other states where the number of polling
units where the elections were extended are Lagos (90), Kebbi (16),
Adamawa (25), Niger (six ), Yobe (37), Borno (eight), Jigawa (37), Kano
(13) and FCT (two).
He also rejected the claim by the
spokesman for the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Femi
Fani-Kayode, that his party had won in certain number of states.
Jega, who said Fani-Kayode should be
asked the source of his figures, stated that as of the time he was
addressing the journalists on Sunday evening, collation had only been
concluded in two states. He said that the results from the two had yet
to arrive Abuja in the manner that it could be announced.
The chairman said, “You said somebody in
one of the parties said the PDP is winning in 23 states. I don’t know
the sources of his information. I know result have not been collated in
23 states.
“May be you should direct the questions to him and let him explain.”
He advised journalists “to be careful
about reporting this kind of information that is being put out there by
people who are clearly partisan.”
He also debunked speculation that he was under pressure to declare results of the presidential election inconclusive.
“We are not under any pressure to
declare inconclusive elections. In fact, I wonder who will be interested
in declaring the election inconclusive. I think candidates will be
interested in being declared winners and not to have the election
declared inconclusive,” Jega said.
The INEC boss said his office had on
Sunday morning received petitions from the APC in Rivers State calling
for outright cancellation of the elections in the state.
He assured the petitioners that the
commission would consider all the complaints, including the allegation
of presence of some underage voters and substitution of some members of
the commission’s ad hoc staff with untrained partisan persons in Rivers
and Lagos states.
However, results from Osun State showed
that Buhari recorded victory in 22 out of the 24 Local Government
Areas so far announced by the state INEC. He had 264,734 votes.
Jonathan,who won the remaining LGAs – Ife Central and Ife East – scored 192,288 votes.
The results were announced in Osogbo by the returning officers for each of the LGAs on Sunday.
Also in Ogun State, the APC presidential
candidate defeated Jonathan in 13 out of the 20 LGAs whose results were
announced by INEC.
He polled 308, 290 votes while Jonathan scored 207,950 votes.
The APC candidate for the Ogun Central
Senatorial District, Lanre Tejuoso, defeated PDP’s Abisola
Sodipo-Clark, the wife of an Ijaw national leader, Edwin Clark.
Tejuoso scored 115, 197 votes while
Sodipo-Clark had 30,036 votes. The sitting senator for Ogun Central and
Social Democratic Party’s candidate, Olugbenga Obadara, got 15,124
votes.
Jonathan, however, had it easy in Ekiti
State where he polled 176,466 votes from 16 councils in the state.
Buhari garnered 120,331 votes.
The result was announced by the state Returning Officer, Prof. Adebiyi Daramola, to party officials on Sunday.
It was also a sweet victory for the PDP as it won all the three senatorial and six House of Representatives seats in the state.
Impliedly, by implication two of the
APC senators – Anthony Adeniyi and Olubunmi Adetumbi – who contested
the poll will not join their colleagues in the eight National
Assembly.
Gbenga Olofin, the third APC candidate
for Ekiti Central was defeated by Fatimat Raji-Rasaki, wife of a former
Lagos State military administrator, Brig.-Gen. Raji Rasaki of the PDP.
Those elected for the House of
Representatives seats are Kehinde Agboola, Ayotunde Oladimeji, Thaddeus
Aina, Olamide Oni, Akin Awodumila and Segun Adekola.
In Kogi State, Buhari was leading by polling 108,817 votes from six LGAs as against Jonathan’s 84,555 in five LGAs.
The APC candidate also won in Dekina,
the LGA of Governor Idris Wada with 18, 819 votes to Jonathan’s 13,885
votes. He also won in Amadu Alli’s LGA of Idah with 10,445 votes to
Jonathan’s 6,113.
But there was a mild tension in parts of
Imo State on Sunday as armed officials of the Department of State
Services, the Police and the Army barred journalists from collation
centres in the state.
At the collation centre in Owerri
Municipal Council Secretariat, journalists were turned back from the
gate by stern looking security operatives who asked them to go back
and wait until the results were announced.
All efforts to reach the Resident Electoral Commissioner, George Ada, were abortive as his telephone was switched off.
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