The flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu is in the lead in Nigeria’s keenly contested presidential election with official results coming in from 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

According to results presented by state collation officers for the presidential election (SCOPs) before the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, at the National Collation Centre in Abuja, Tinubu polled 8,805,835 from the 36 states and the FCT.

Tinubu was followed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 6,984,640.

The Labour Party’s flag bearer, Peter Obi followed closely with 6,096,017 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), has 1,499,303 votes.

Tinubu raked in 12 states, Obi won 11 states plus the Federal Capital Territory, Atiku won 12 states while Kwankwaso won one state.

The final declaration of result and winner is expected by the INEC chair anytime from now.

According to Section 134 of the Nigerian Constitution, a presidential candidate can only be announced as the winner if he or she has the majority of votes cast at the election; and has not less than one-quarter of the votes cast at the election in at least two-thirds of all the States in the Federation and the FCT.

Sub-section 3 of the same section states explicitly that “in default of a candidate duly elected in accordance with subsection (2) of this section their shall be a second election”.

See the list of states officially presented to the INEC chairman by SCOPs in Abuja: