Buhari wins

By Olusola Alatise
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President Muhammadu Buhari has won his re-election bid for a second term.

He polled 15,191,847m votes to defeat his arch rival, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku who scored 11,262,978m votes,  leaving a difference of almost 4 million votes.

Buhari led 19 states while Atiku won in 17 states but both fulfilled the constitutional requirements of having 25% in at least two third of the 36 states and Federal Capital Territory.

In 2015, Buhari scored 15,424,922 votes to beat the PDP incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan who polled 12,853,162 votes.

The stage for Buhari’s victory was set by Ekiti State where the incumbent president defeated Atiku, followed by Ogun, Osun, and Lagos States.

Buhari also repeated the feat in Kwara, Nassarawa while Atiku stepping in winning  in Benue and Plateau states in North central Zone and the Federal Capital Territory.

The President also feared better in the North East zone as he floored Atiku in Borno , Yobe and Gombe,  except Adamawa where the PDP candidate held sway.

He maintained lead in his traditional states like Kastina, Kano and Kaduna where he had the highest votes.

Buhari’s victory in the North West states  attested to how much he is loved among the people of the states.

It also depicted his pre_ eminence and cult like rock star in the northern states of the country.

His closest challenger, Atiku also fulfilled the two third requirements, leading in 17 states and FCT but did not have the majority vote.

Atiku led in all the 11 states in both South East and South South and had good outings in Oyo and Ondo States in the south west.

He also won Taraba Benue, Adamawa and FCT among others. As at the time of going to press, Buhari and his party, APC have not reacted to the electoral victory but Minister of Power,  Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, and the campaign director for election monitoring, told the Associated Press that they were preparing for the president to give his acceptance speech and celebrate.

Also, Voice of Nigeria (VON) Director General, Mr. Osita Okechukwu has described the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari in the just concluded presidential election as a guarantee for uninterrupted growth of critical infrastructure.

Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has rejected the results of the presidential election  announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Uche Secondus, PDP national chairman, said the results announced were “incorrect and unacceptable” to the party.

He said this at a press conference in Abuja.

The PDP national chairman said the party has discovered “irregularities” in results so far announced from Nasarawa state and the FCT.

He alleged that the current administration “colluded” with INEC and security agencies to manipulate results from polling units across the country.

“Our collation centres have the original results from all the polling units in the country. That is where we are going to reclaim our results,” he said.

“The results are incorrect and unacceptable to our party. Officials of the APC working with INEC have decided to alter results to affect our people. This must now be resisted by every well-meaning Nigerians.

“INEC must live up to its responsibility. They are under pressure. We have the facts and when the time comes, we begin to release them.”