The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in the 23rd February, 2019 presidential election has claimed that his votes were stolen in four states which led to his defeat at the polls by President Muhammadu Buhari. He claimed that the result announced by the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) in four states were wrong and he is challenging the result in court.
In the electoral petition filed earlier this week to challenge the results of the presidential election, he submitted his “state to state computation” of the results of the presidential election. The states Atiku Abubakar is laying claim to are Kogi, Kaduna, Gombe and Niger states.
The election result released by INEC showed that President Muhammadu Buhari won the election in 19 states with a total of 15,191,847 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar who won the 18 states including the FCT by scoring 11,262,978 votes. The winning margin of President Muhammadu Buhari was 3,928,869 votes.
In the petition filed on Monday 20th March, 2019, Atiku Abubakar through his lawyers at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja to prove his case stated that in his computation, he polled 18,356,732 votes to defeat President Muhammadu Buhari whom he said scored 16,741,430 votes with a margin of 1,615,302 votes. His petition also claims he won 21 states, excluding the results from Rivers State, which he said was not available on INEC’s server as at 25th February, 2019 when the computation was made.
According to the results announced by INEC, the states President Muhammadu Buhari won are Niger, Ogun, Osun, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara, Bauchi, Borno, Ekiti, Gombe, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos and Nasarawa states.
While Atiku Abubakar won in Enugu, Imo, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba and the FCT, Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi and Edo states.
INEC official results
Kaduna
Mr Buhari: 993,445
Mr Abubakar: 649,612.
The State Collation Officer, Bello Shehu
Niger
Mr Abubakar: 218,052
Mr Buhari: 612,371
The State Collation Officer, Angela Mary
Kogi
Mr Buhari: 285,894
Mr Abubakar: 218,207
The State Collation Officer, Michael Adikwu
Gombe
Mr Buhari: 403,961
Mr Abubakar: 138,484
The State Collation Officer, Kyari Mohammed.
Atiku Abubakar’s claims
Kaduna
Mr Abubakar: 961,143
Mr Buhari: 469,002
Niger
Mr Abubakar: 576,308
Mr Buhari: 504,218
Kogi
Mr Abubakar: 504,308
Mr Buhari: 431,479
Gombe
Mr Abubakar: 684,077
Mr Buhari: 115,225
