INEC declares Tinubu president-elect

Bola Tinubu

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Nigeria’s president-elect.

INEC chairman Prof Mahmood Yakubu pronounced Tinubu President-elect at exactly 4:10am on Wednesday.

He said the former Lagos State governor polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rival, Atiku Abubakar, who polled 6,984,520 votes while Peter Obi of the Labour Party, secured 6,101,533, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of New Nigerian Peoples Party trailed with 1,496,687.

He said valid votes were 24,025940 and rejected votes were 939,278, while the total votes cast were 24,966218.

The announcement, which was done at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, signalled the end of the collation which started on Sunday.

Declaring the final result, Yakubu said Tinubu and the APC also satisfied the constitutional requirement.

He said the certificate of return (CoR) would be issued to Tinubu and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima by 3pm on Wednesday.