The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Tuesday declared Atiku Abubakar of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of Saturday’s presidential election in Benue State.
The result was announced at the National Collation Centre (ICC) Abuja, by Prof. Sebastian Maimako, the Vice-Chancellor, University of Jos, who is the Collation Officer for the election in the state.
Maimako announced that Atiku polled 356,817 votes to defeat All Progressives Congress (APC)’s President Muhamadu Buhari, who scored 347,668 votes.
Mr Donald Duke of Social Democratic Party (SDP) was third with 4,927 votes.
According to him, Obadiah Mailafia of African Democratic Congress (ADC) polled 554 votes, Yusuf Yabagi of Action Democratic Party ( ADP) scored 312 votes, while Omoyele Sowore of African Action Congress (AAC) polled 309 votes.
He said the total number of registered voters in the state was 2,391,276, out of which 786,069 were accredited.
He said total votes cast was 763,872 out of which 34,960 was rejected.
Maimako noted that votes in 172 polling units were cancelled as a result of issues relating to the non-use of the smart card readers as well as over voting with 122,989 voters affected.
“Some related cases of violence were also reported by some of the collation officers at the Local Government Areas (LGAs).
“We have the reports and they will be submitted,’’ he said.
