Obi Wins in Tinubu Stronghold Lagos as #NigeriaDecides2023

Peter Obi of the Labour Party has been declared the winner of the presidential election in Lagos, Nigeria's most populous state, where Bola Tinubu of the APC a former governor, is considered the political kingpin. The results were rejected by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), whose candidate Atiku Abubakar came in third in results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission at the state's collation centre.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) began collating election results yeserday, even as voting continued in some constitutencies which had suffered delays or disruptions on election day (February 25). A coaltion of civic groups appealed for INEC to maintain neutralility and transparency, for police to maintain order and for citizens to remain peaceful as vote counting proceeds.

INEC issued a statement expressing "regret" for the "relatively slow and unsteady" performance of the portal used for management of the results process. The statement said the problem was caused by "technocal glitches" and was not "due to any intrusion or sabotage."

Premium Times reports that observers deployed by the publication and the Center for Journalism Innovation Development and other civil society groups across Nigeria's 36 States "observed that the poor conduct of INEC officials and ad-hoc staff across polling units contributed to low turnout of voters across in the country".