Prof.Felix Salako, the Lagos State Collation Officer for the Saturday Presidential Election conducted by INEC showing party agent forms for the collation of results.
President Muhammadu Buhari and Presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has polled 580,825 votes to defeat his closest rival, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of PDP in Lagos State.
Buhari’s closest challenger, Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 448,015 to come second at the end of the state final collation of the Presidential election results from the 20 local government areas of the state.
Prof. Felix Salako, the Vice Chancellor, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun was the INEC state collation officer who collated results of the 20 LGAs.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that LGA collation officers properly presented the results one after the other as they arrived at the collation centre before they were accepted by Salako.
At the end of the collation, Salako said the state had a registered voters of 6,313,507, with accredited voters at 1, 196, 490.
According to him, the valid votes are 1,089,567, total rejected votes at 67,023 while votes cast stand at 1,157, 590 in the presidential election.
Reeling out the results of each political parties, he said Accord polled 5, 948 votes, AAC, 8, 910; ADC, 2915; ADP, 1,262 and ANN polled 6,946.
The professor added that APA had 1495 votes, DPP polled 1,372 votes, PCP got 8,458, and SNC scored 1766.
The other political parties that participated in the poll had less than 1000 votes each.
According to him, Form 6OE will be pasted at the collation centre after duly signed by the party agents.
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NAN reports that various party agents took turn to sign the collated results for onward transmission to Abuja for the final collation.
He also handed over a copy of the result to each of the party agents.
Salako gave opportunity to each of the agents to raise any observation on the collated results as they were being presented local government by local government.
According to the collated results, APC won in 15 LGAs while the PDP won in five LGAs after the exercise which commenced at the INEC Office, Yaba and Sunday night ended at some minutes after 7:00 p.m. on Monday.
Buhari defeated his closest challenger, Abubakar in the Apapa, Ikorodu, Ibeju-Lekki, Ikeja, Epe, Badagry, Lagos Island, Agege, Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos Mainland, Mushin, Oshodi-Isolo, Somolu, Kosofe and Alimosho.
However, PDP defeated APC in Surulere, Eti-Osa, Ojo, Ajeromi-Ifelodun and Amuwo-Odofin LGAs.
The collation officer said that it was his duty to announce the scores of each political parties in the presidential election held on Feb. 23 in Lagos.
NAN reports that 73 presidential candidates participated in the Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly election held across the 36 states of the federation and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Prof. Ifagbemi Awamaridi, the Labour Party agent and governorship candidate of the party in Lagos State, later told NAN that much was still needed to be done to deepen democracy in the country.
Awamaridi, who noted that INEC tried its best, said that the commission needed a deeper level of independence to conduct credible polls in the country.
According to him, the party boycotted the election at the polling units because party faithful who would have served as agents were not given accreditation by the INEC.
Mr Abiodun Dabiri, the Lagos State Chairman of Abundant Nigeria Renewal Party (ANRP), described the election and collation as credible though there were rooms for improvement.
Retired Capt. Tunji Shelle, the PDP party agent who commended all collation officers for trying to meet up with the challenges and tolerating politicians, said that politicians would always be politicians.
Shelle said that the turnout of voters was an indication that people wanted a change of the present administration, saying that the chance of PDP was very bright.
On security, the party agent said there were security lapses all over some the state.
Mr Demola Seriki, the APC party agent for the state collation, said that the exercise had been peaceful and orderly but frowned at the delay in the counting almost 48 hours after polls.
“This election commenced at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, this is Monday and we are still there and we don’t know when we are leaving; this is very barbaric.
“In terms of peace, it is peaceful but in timeliness I will give INEC failure,” he said.
He also frowned at the cancellations of results in a part of Surulere, describing it as disenfranchisement and manipulation of peoples destiny.
According to Seriki, the party will prosecute the matter to ensure justice.
He said that the postponement of the Presidential and the National Assembly elections on Feb. 16 affected the turnout of voters.
The APC chieftain, who called for measures to prune down the number of presidential candidates, condemned the delay in the collation.
