Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu has declared the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu as winner of the 2023 presidential election.

The INEC chair made the declaration on Wednesday at the National Collation Centre, Abuja.

Tinubu defeated 17 other candidates who took part in the election. He scored a total of 8,794,726 votes, the highest of all the candidates, thus meeting the first constitutional requirement to be declared the winner.

He also scored over 25 per cent of the votes cast in 30 states, more than the 25 states constitutionally required.

INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, who announced the final results in the early hours of Wednesday in Abuja, said Atiku Abubakar of the PDP came second in the election.

Atiku polled a total of 6,984,520 votes in the election.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party came third in the election with a total of 6,101,533 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the NNPP came fourth with 1,496,687 votes.

Only the top four candidates won the presidential election in at least one state. Each of Messrs Tinubu, Atiku and Obi won in 12 states while Mr Kwankwaso won only in Kano.

However, winning a majority of states is not a requirement for a candidate to be declared the winner of the election.

Details later…