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Nigeria’s opposition parties reject early election results

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Nigeria‘s opposition parties have rejected the early released election results giving President Muhammadu Buhari the lead.

The results have been rejected as incorrect and unacceptable. This as hundreds of people in the Northern State of Kano celebrate Buhari’s provisional lead in what was billed as one of the key battlegrounds in this year’s elections.

The AU and Western Observers have criticised the running of the elections citing organisational glitches. But after a postponement of a week the elections took place. With results slowly trickling in from the regions, both sides are at loggerheads.

Initial results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Monday put Buhari ahead, having won in seven of Nigeria’s 36 states. The chairman of the People’s Democratic Party rejected all election results currently  being announced by the country’s electoral commission.

“All results currently been announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, is incorrect, this is unacceptable to our party and the people. Secondly, officials of both President Buhari’s government and All Progressive Congress, APC, working with INEC officers, have tried to alter the course of history and  disenfranchise our people through the cancellation and manipulation of figures for results already announced at  polling units,” says PDP chairperson, Uche Secondus.

Secondus accused Buhari’s party of applying military tactics.

“They are under pressure. The situation we find ourselves is like as if we are in the military era. We’ve never seen this style before where at the end of the election the villa will dispatch security agencies and ministers to all parts of the country.”

At stake is control of Africa’s top oil producer and biggest economy. Northeast Nigeria has also been wrecked by a decade-long battle with militants which has spilled into neighbouring countries and led to the deployment of a regional task force.

Buhari, 76, is a former military ruler seeking a second term on an anti-corruption platform, while Atiku, 72, a businessman and ex-vice president, has pledged above all to expand the role of the private sector.

The full outcome, not expected before later in the week, appears to hinge on which man voters trust most to revamp an economy still struggling from a 2016 recession.

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