The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Sunday, commenced the last stage of the collation and announcement of the results of the presidential election.

A total of 18 presidential candidates contested the election which was held across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, on Saturday.

The election was postponed till Sunday in some polling units in different states due to violence, logistical problems, theft of BVAS and other issues.

But the election has been largely concluded across the 36 states and 774 local government areas in the country.

Some states where the election has been concluded have finished collating the results at wards, local government and state levels.

INEC collation officers across the states are expected to present their final tallies at the National Collation Centre in Abuja from 6 p.m. Sunday.

State collation officers are expected to take turns presenting their results.

The INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, who presides over the proceedings at the National Collation Centre, is the Chief Returning Officer of the presidential election. He will make the announcement of the final results and declare the winner of the election after taking the results of the elections from the polling units across the country.

INEC had announced earlier that the final collation would commence at about noon but was later adjourned to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday.

This year’s general election is the seventh since the restoration of democracy in the country. The previous elections were held in 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019 respectively.

Described as the most keenly contested poll in Nigeria’s contemporary political history, this year’s ballots had 18 registered parties to be voted for.

However, four are considered major contenders. They are Atiku Abubakar of PDP, Bola Tinubu of APC, Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Rabiu Kwankwaso of NNPP.

To be declared the winner, a candidate must score the highest number of votes and at least 25 per cent of votes in 25 states (two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and the federal capital, Abuja).

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WINNER

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agent, Dino Melaye has reacted to the INEC presentation of the final results of Nigeria’s 2023 presidential elections at the National Collation Centre in Abuja.

Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has threatened to reject the result of the presidential election.

IfakoIjaiyeNews reports that Dino Melaye threatened to reject the result of the presidential election while raising concerns about the presidential election result in Kwara, Ekiti.

Dino argued that the failure of INEC to promptly upload online, results from polling units makes the results questionable.

Dino dey Para for corrupt inec chairman… Corruption jam corruption.. E shock ????

"LP- 1,125,400" South east labour party obiiscoming pic.twitter.com/q3NlfaqPaP

— son of grace (@mc_ichie01) February 27, 2023

Dino said, “Mr Chairman, I have a fundamental observation based on how proceedings went yesterday. Yesterday, we received results from Ekiti state and I worked on the result as presented yesterday and discovered that we have 987,647 registered voters in Ekiti, and 310,558 are accredited.

“And since we have 310,558 accredited, the result as presented yesterday, APC had 201,494, if you subtract that from 310,558, what you have left is 100,064, out of 100,064, PDP scored 89,554. If you subtract that from the balance of 100,064, what is left is 10,510, and now it was also recorded that Labour had 11,397 when the total number left is 10,510, leaving an over figure of 887, apart from this 887 surplus.”

“We have not calculated even the votes of other political parties because you will recall that they told us that ADC scored 1,037. So, you will see from that postulation and presentation yesterday that the figure did not add up. There was over-voting. The number of votes outweighs the number of the accredited votes and we know what exactly the law says concerning that. I move that should be considered because it cannot stand,” he added.

Yakubu later adjourned the results collation for one hour as party agents said they were coming up with their decision and standing on the observation they had raised.

The presidential candidate of ruling All Progressives Congress, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, polled the highest votes of 421, 390 votes to emerge first in the just concluded presidential elections in Jigawa State.

While the former vice president and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, came second with 386,587 votes.

Announcing the results, the collation officer for the 2023 presidential election in Jigawa State, Prof. Arma-Ya’u Hamisu Bichi of the Federal University Dutsinma, Katsina State, said the election was conducted peacefully and the contestants scored the following votes.

He explained that the total registered votes are 2, 341,441 and the total votes accredited is 961,670 while the total votes cast stand at 954,805.

Prof. Bichi announced the scores by each party as follows: APC polled 421,390; LP polled 1,889; NNPP 98,234, while PDP polled 386,587 votes.

He then announced the total valid votes as 920,531, rejected