….to resume collation 11am Monday

…INEC cautions parties against releasing unofficial results

The independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday announced the results of the 2023 presidential election for Ekiti state with the APC achieving a landslide win.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Ekiti, Ayobami Salami reeled out the results at the 2023 presidential election collation centre at the International Conference Centre in Abuja.

According to the INEC REC, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) polled 201,494 votes followed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who scored 89,554 votes.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) polled 11,397 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) polled 264 votes.

INEC National Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu said the commission expects the results of the other 35 states and the Federal Capital Territory and moved the national collation to 11am on Monday.

Mahmood also said the collation of presidential election results will be done at four levels — first at the 8,889 wards, then at the 774 local government areas, then the state collation officers for the presidential election (SCOPs) at the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory will submit the votes per candidate in Abuja.

The electoral chief said the collation centre will be open all day and all night with short breaks.

He also cautioned political parties to only draw their figures from INEC.

“I appeal to all political parties and media organisations to draw their figures only from the official results released by the commission as the only body constitutionally responsible for releasing official election figures,” Yakubu emphasised.

Meanwhile, the Electoral umpire said issues faced with its result viewing portal (IReV) was caused by technical hitches.

In a statement signed by INEC national commissioner, Festus Okoye, the commission said it is aware the IReV has been relatively slow and unsteady.

The electoral body explained that the problem was due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season and state elections, to one for managing nationwide general election.

“The Commission regrets this setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process,” the statement reads.

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“Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.

“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.”