President Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has been formally declared the winner of the 2019 presidential election in Nigeria.
Prof Mahmood Yakubu, chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, made the declaration after the collation of results from the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital City, FCT.
According to the final figures released by INEC, President Buhari polled 15,191,847 votes, winning in 19 out of the 36 states while his main challenger Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party scored 11, 255,978 votes and won 17 states and Abuja.
Prof Mahmood said Buhari also satisfied the constitutional requirement of making 25 per cent in 34 states and the FCT.
The INEC chairman said the total votes cast in the 2019 presidential election were 29,364,209 out of which 27,324,583 were valid while 1,289,607 votes were rejected.
He noted the cases of cancellation of results in some states, he however, pointedly said “the cancellation do not affect conclusion of the process.”
He therefore announced thus, “That, Muhammadu Buhari, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby, declared winner and returned.”