LAGOS, NIGERIA: Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Wednesday declared Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner of Nigeria’s presidential election amid calls from the opposition for new polls.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, announced Tinubu as the winner at the International Collation Centre in Abuja during the early hours of Wednesday.
Tinubu, 70, who contested for the ruling All Progressives Congress party (APC) garnered 8,794,726 votes to become Nigeria’s president-elect while his closest rival Mr Atiku Abubakar from the People’s Democratic Party came in second with 6,984,520.
The two leading opposition parties (LP and PDP) have said that delays in uploading results left room for irregularities and Mr Abubakar and Mr Obi are expected to take their appeals to court.
The victorious All Progressives Congress party said they should accept defeat and not cause trouble, but the opposition has three weeks to appeal the results.
According to the country’s constitution, in order to have the election judged invalid, they will need to prove the national electoral body did not follow the law and acted in a way that could have changed the outcome.
Nigeria’s Supreme Court has never overturned a presidential election, despite a number of attempts by those defeated.
Who is Bola Tinubu?
Bola Tinubu according to the biography on his campaign website was born in Lagos in 1952 to a Muslim family from the Yoruba ethnic group, but some say he is older than this.
He moved to the US in the 1970s and worked in a number of jobs – dishwasher, taxi driver, and night guard – to pay for his education.
In 1979 he graduated from Chicago State University with a business administration degree, returning to Nigeria in the 1980s, working initially as an auditor for oil company Mobil.
He was elected governor of Lagos in 1999 after the military rule was ended.
He served two terms, with opinions divided on his success – supporters say he improved infrastructure but others say the city is still deeply dysfunctional.
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