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| Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) |
INEC only announced the results from only one of the six South-South states before it shifted further action till Tuesday(today). The state is Akwa Ibom where Jonathan had 953,304 votes against Buhari’s 58,411.
Jonathan also had the upper hand in the FCT where he garnered157, 195 votes ahead of Buhari’s 146, 399.
In Kwara State, the former Head of State recorded 302,146 votes; 1,127,760 in Kaduna; 1,345,441in his home state of Katsina; 885,988 in Jigawa; 1,903,999 in Kano; 236,838 in Nasarawa; 264, 851in Kogi and 429,140 in Plateau.
Jonathan had 132,602 in Kwara; 484,085 in Kaduna; 98,937 in Katsina; 142,904 in Jigawa; 215,779 in Kano; 273,460 in Nasarawa; 149,987 in Kogi; and 549, 615 in Plateau.
Saturday’s election was the fourth time Buhari was taking a shot at the Presidency. In 2003 and 2007, he flew the flag of the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party and in 2011, the Congress for Progressive Change.
Hours before the results were announced , Jonathan met behind closed doors with some foreign observers who monitored the presidential and National Assembly elections.
Those he met with were a former Ghanaian President, Kuffour, who is the leader of the ECOWAS Elections Observers; a former Liberian President, Amos Sawyer, leader of the African Union Election Observer Mission; a former Malawian President and Head of Commonwealth Election Observer Mission, Bakili Muluzi; and the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Ambassador Aisha Laraba Abdullahi.
The meeting which started inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja at about 3.30pm was also attended by Vice-President Namadi Sambo and a few presidential aides.
US, UK warn against manipulation of results
As the meeting was ongoing, the United States and the United Kingdom expressed concern over what they called “disturbing indications” of a “deliberate political interference “ in the collation process.
The UK Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, and the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, in a joint statement posted on www.uk.gov, said “there are disturbing indications that
the collation process – where the votes are finally counted – may be subject to deliberate political interference.”
Warning politicians not to undermine the independence of INEC, they said their observations so far showed that there had been no evidence of systemic manipulation of the process.
According to them, any plot to change the results would contravene the letter and spirit of the Abuja Accord, to which both major parties committed themselves.
The statement read,”The governments of the United States and the United Kingdom would be very concerned by any attempts to undermine the independence of the electoral commission (INEC) or its Chairman, Prof (Attahiru Jega); or in any way distort the expressed will of the Nigerian people.
“Our governments welcome the largely peaceful vote on March 28. The Nigerian people have shown a commendable determination to register their vote and choose their leaders.
PDP rejects results in Kano, six other states
The PDP, apparently sensing defeat had earlier on Monday called on INEC to cancel the results in Kano, Gombe, Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina, Bauchi and Kogi states.
The party said its call was necessitated by what it called massive irregularities in the seven states.
The Deputy National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, at a news conference in Abuja alleged that irregularities such as underaged voting, night voting and harassment of PDP supporters took place in the states.
But in Rivers State where the state chapter of the APC also called for the cancellation of the elections, INEC said it had sent a three-man committee to investigate alleged irregularities that characterised the conduct of the polls.
The committee headed by the Supervisory National Commissioner for the state, Thelma Iremirem, has M.K Hammanga and Lai Olurode as members.
A statement by the Secretary to the commission, Augusta Ogakwu, explained that the action was necessitated by the call for the cancellation of the elections in the state by the APC.
Ogakwu said in the statement that the members of the committee had left for a fact-finding mission to the state.
The statement read, “Further to the allegation made by the APC on the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday in Rivers State and its call for the cancellation of the exercise, INEC has set up a fact-finding mission to ascertain the veracity of the claims and allegations and to advise the commission and the Chief Electoral Commissioner/Returning Officer for the presidential elections.”
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