Presidential election results: Ohanaeze urges Nigerians to be calm

Spokesperson of the Igbo socio-political organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chuks Ibegbu on Wednesday reacted to the victory of President Muhammadu Buhari at last Saturday’s presidential election.

Ibegbu urged Nigerians and the international community to remain calm, following the announcement of Buhari as winner of the presidential election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Ibegbu also cautioned Nigerians against taking the law into their hands in the face of the current announcement.

He also disclosed that Ohanaeze’s national body would be meeting soon to take a final decision on the outcome of the election.

According to Ibegbu: “Ohanaeze NEC and Imeobi will meet to make a collective statement on that and until that happens we want Nigerians to remain calm and we call on the international community to remain calm and nobody should take the law into his or her hands.

“Ohanaeze Imoebe and its National Executive Committee will soon meet and our position will be made clear on the outcome of the election, so this is all I can say for now.”

INEC had on Wednesday morning declared the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Muhammadu Buhari as the winner of Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election.

Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu made the declaration on Wednesday morning at the ICC collation centre in Abuja.

This follows the official announcement of results from 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by the commission.

Buhari polled a total of 15,191,847 votes, compared to the 11,262,978 votes recorded by Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

While Atiku has gained more votes, winning the incumbent President with wide margins in states in the South-East and South-South, Buhari gathered insurmountable strength in the North.

A total of 73 presidential candidates participated in the election which held on Saturday.