The Independent National Electoral Commission has declared Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, as winner of Saturday Senatorial election in the state’s North West district.
Akpabio polled 422,009 of the 439,449 to defeat Chief Inibehe Okorie of the All Progressive Congress who recorded 15, 152 votes.
The United States Ambassador to Nigeria, James Eintwistle, on Sunday said the expectation of America in the presidential election is for the will of Nigerians to prevail.
He also commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for adopting card readers to protect the integrity of the ballot.
He said the U.S might also learn from Nigeria by using card readers in its future poll.
Eintwistle, who made his views known in a short interactive session with journalists at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, said he was impressed by the turn out of Nigerians for the presidential and National Assembly Elections.
He said: “I was extremely impressed. Yesterday, I went around to a number of places in the FCT. Every place I went, I was impressed by the patience and dedication of the Nigerian voters.
“The fact that they were willing to stand in line for hours and hours, in the heat and in the sun so that they can exercise their democratic rights to vote, personally, I found that inspirational.
“My congratulations to the Nigerian voters. They have reminded us all about what a beautiful thing democracy is.”
Responding to a question, the Ambassador said: “The expectation of my government is that the Nigerian people will win. And by that, I mean they will get what they want which is a transparent, credible and non-violent election.
“And we look forward to working with whatever government emerges from this election.”
On issues raised by the All Progressives Congress on the conduct of the poll, he said:”The APC can speak for itself. I have no comment on any political statement so far.”
Eintwistle, however, singled out the deployment of card readers as a unique high technology which had assisted in protecting the sanctity of the ballot process.
He added: “I was very impressed about the decision by INEC to use technology in this election.
“I will tell you something, the PVCs are very hi-tech. They are more hi-tech than my voter card from the State of Virginia in the U.S.
“My voter card does not have my biometric, it does not have my fingerprint. So I was very impressed by the decision to go hi-tech because hi-tech, I think, gives the process more integrity.
On the failure of card readers in some states, Eintwistle said INEC should look at what went wrong and correct the lapses.
Odo Otin LG: APC= 13, 351, PDP= 10, 230
Atakumosa West LG: APC= 6, 639, PDP= 4, 734
Ife East LG: APC = 12, 513, PDP = 15, 532
Ife South LG: APC= 9, 793, PDP = 9,283
Olorunda LG: APC = 26, 342, PDP = 7, 958
Ife North LG: APC= 8, 369, PDP= 7,921
Boripe LG: APC = 12, 152, PDP= 7, 457
Ila LG: APC= 11, 576, PDP= 7, 647
Ifedayo LG: APC= 3, 824, PDP= 3, 786
Boluwaduro LG: APC = 5, 288, PDP= 4, 413.
Isokan LG: APC= 10, 187, PDP= 6, 974.
Atakumosa LG: East APC= 8, 668, PDP= 5, 418.
Orolu LG: APC= 8, 466, PDP= 6, 360.
Ifelodun LG: APC= 17, 040, PDP= 9, 847.
Irepodun LG: APC= 12, 485, PDP= 7, 750
Egbedore LG: APC= 9, 577, PDP= 6, 507.
Ayedaade LG: APC= 30, 560, PDP= 9, 466
Olaoluwa LG: APC =8, 125, PDP= 5, 910.
Ilesa West LG: APC =11,714, PDP=5,145
Ayedire LG: APC = 8, 280, PDP= 6, 323
Obokun LG: APC = 10, 506, PDP= 9, 325.
Oriade LG: APC =12,724, PDP 10,490
Ilesa East LG: APC =13,229, PDP 5,740
Ife Central LG: APC =13,326, PDP =18,072
Iwo LG: APC=21,361, PDP 11,593
Osogbo LG: APC =35,348, PDP=11,567
Ede South LG: APC = 12, 068, PDP =6,899
Ede North LG: APC=16,014, PDP=9,628
Irewole LG: APC=16,775, PDP 7,566.
The Chairman Northern States Governors’ Forum, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, is trailing the All Progressive Congress candidate, David Umaru, in the Niger State Senatorial election.
Umaru is leading the governor in five of the nine local government areas in the Niger East Senatorial district so far declared by by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The APC candidate has polled 149, 443 votes, while Aliyu has 46, 459 votes.
The INEC Returning Officer for the district, Prof. Ali Audu Jiigam, said Umaru polled 49,519 votes in Chanchaga local government, the council of the governor who scored 17,209 votes.
In Gurara local government, the Aliyu recorded 6,520 votes as against the APC candidate’s 18,887 votes, while in Shiroro, Umaru got 27,191 votes and Aliyu garnered 7,519 votes.
The APC candidate defeated his PDP opponent in Tafa local government with 17,596 votes to 8,151, while in Bosso, he outscored Aliyu with 36,250 votes to 7,060.
Former Governor of Kebbi State, Senator Adamu Aliero, on Sunday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to declare election results as expressed by the people.
Aliero, who spoke to our correspondent at his country home in Birnin-Kebbi, insisted that the will of the people must be allowed to prevail for the sustenance of democracy in the country.
The Kebbi Central Senatorial candidate on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) however expressed satisfaction in the election conducted so far.
He added that the voter turnout was unprecedented in the state.
Aliero said: “My message to INEC is that they should declare the election results as expressed by the people.
“The will of the people must be allowed to prevail and that is the only way democracy can be sustained in Nigeria.
“They have introduced card reader which is a very good innovation. It has minimized or completely eliminated rigging.
“In future, I urge them to address all the minor problems we encountered so that elections can be conducted without any hitch whatsoever.”
On the voting in Kebbi State, he said the process has been very orderly.
He added: “The people are law abiding and the process is very good in the sense that it has followed the laid down procedure as outlined in the Electoral Act and the INEC guidelines.
“There is no problem whatsoever. Generally speaking, the conduct of the election was peaceful in Kebbi.
“There were only two or three places where elections could not commence in time because of the problem of the card reader.
“The machines had to be configured and that is why elections could not commence in good time and because of that it was extended till today (yesterday).
“Hopefully, they will finish today (yesterday) and the results will be sent to the collation centres for collation and announcement.”
Nigerians are worried that results of the elections in places where polls were concluded on Saturday have not been released.
State offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission have refused to release results of the Senatorial and House of Representatives elections in constituencies where polls were concluded on Saturday.
In Abuja, the INEC national headquarters has also kept mute on the outcome of the presidential polls in areas not affected by today’s voting.
The commission said on Saturday that voting would hold today in 309 voting precincts out of the 1,500 nationwide.
The development has fueled suspicion that some external forces are planning to rewrite the results of the presidential election in particular.
INEC is said to be under intense pressure by some top officials of the Presidency to tamper with the results to favour the President and the ruling party.
Results declared and collated so far indicate that the All Progressive Congress and its candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari won massively in the North and convincingly in the Southwest leaving the Peoples Democratic Party and its candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, with the South South and South East.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, on Sunday urged Nigerians to be calm even when the Independent National Electoral Commission releases the results of the presidential and National Assembly elections.
He said, “When the results are announced, we should take them with calm.”
The speaker noted that election has been very peaceful in Sokoto State.
He spoke after casting his vote in Tambuwal area of the state.
He expressed satisfaction with the performance of the card reader machines in his area, stressing that he had a hitch-free accreditation.
He said: “The accreditation in my booth was very quick and seamless. The card reader was quick at recognizing my finger. In most of the polling booths around here, the process has been quite okay except for some polling units where there are challenges from card readers that are not functioning very well or their fingers not recognized by the machines. ”
The Speaker noted that INEC did its best to rectify the few cases of card readers’ failure in the area.
The Independent National Electoral Commission has extended voting in Borno and Yobe States.
The state’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Samuel Madaki, said several polling units in three local government areas will be affected by the development.
Madaki listed late arrival of election materials and problems with the card readers as some of the reasons for the extension.
In Yobe, voting will continue in four local government areas of Fika, Yunusari, Geidam and Postiskum.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has warned against any attempt to tamper with the results of the elections that were concluded nationwide on Saturday, saying Nigerians have voted peacefully and massively and they know who they have voted for.
In a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said it has the authentic results from all polling units where voting took place on Saturday, and will not accept anything contrary to those signed results.
It decried the dangerous kite now being flown by the Peoples Democratic Party, through some of their paid media channels, seeking to appropriate unearned victories across the nation.
”We have always said we will accept the result of any free, fair and transparent elections. We stand by that avowal. However, what we will not accept and which we are sure Nigerians themselves will reject is any move to rewrite the results and thwart the will of the people under any guise. We will not accept that.
”We have heard of the desperate moves to cancel the results in areas where the APC has beaten the PDP embarrassingly. Nigerians will definitely not accept that,” APC said.
The party said it is aware of the ongoing efforts to force Electoral Officers and Presiding Officers in Imo State, some of whom are being picked up by the military as we write, to rewrite the results of the elections in the state.
”We have the results from every polling unit in Imo State and we know that we have won in over 80 per cent in the presidential election. So there must be no shenanigans,” it warned.
APC also said the same attempts are being made in Sokoto, Enugu, Ekiti, Ondo, Lagos and other states, wondering why anyone will be seeking to reverse the results that are already settled.
”In the Nsukka Local Government Area, INEC officials, instead of collating results, handed over the exercise to PDP Nsukka zone to write. They holed up inside ADADA HOUSE (a Local Government guest house) to write results and change figures, and were provided with security by the police. APC candidates and agents were chased away. In collaboration with INEC, they refused to let the card readers function and no result sheets came to most polling booths.
”In Lagos, they have yet to announce the result of the Apapa Local Government which has been ready since yesterday, apparently in a move to manipulate the outcome. Those who voted will not agree with any attempt to steal their votes,” the party warned.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged Nigerians to disregard “misleading figures being circulated by the All Progressives Congress (APC)” in the social media as results of the presidential and National Assembly elections in some polling booths.
A statement issued on Sunday by the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, said the figures were “fake” and do not represent the true results which are currently being collated by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC, the only body authorised to release and announce results.
The statement said: “The APC in its desperation for power has resorted to posting fake results in the social media in a bid to ambush the electoral commission, mislead the unsuspecting public to believe it is winning, all in furtherance of its grand plot to cause confusion and set the stage for violence when the authentic results are finally released.
“We therefore alert Nigerians to be on their guard and close ranks in resisting the APC’s plot to plunge the nation into chaos and anarchy. Our democracy has come to stay and the will of the people must prevail over and above the parochial ambition of a selfish few.
“Finally, we strongly caution the APC against its acts of desperation and use of dishonest methods including physical attacks against our members and supporters as these pose great threat to our democracy, the unity and stability of our dear nation.”