BY STEVE OGAH IN LAGOS

(with the contribution of Jibril Ture in Washington)

Lagos, Nigeria [The African]—The All Progressives Congress (A.P.C.) retained power in Nigeria after the Independent National Electoral Commission (I.N.E.C.) declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu the winner in the country’s intensely contested presidential election of February 25.

I.N.E.C. announced that Tinubu received 8,794 726 votes, while his closest rivals, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labor Party polled 6,984,520 and 6,101,533 respectively. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria’s Peoples Party (N.N.P.P.) balloted 1,496,687 votes to make the ranks of the top four candidates.

While supporters of the ruling A.P.C. are jubilant over the announcement from the electoral body, Tinubu’s rivals in the election that was marked by several flagrant irregularities and violence, cried foul. In a joint statement, A.P.C.’s traditional rival, the People’s Democratic Party, the Labour Party, and a smaller party rejected the results by saying: “The results being declared at the National Collation centre have been heavily doctored and manipulated and do not reflect the wishes of Nigerians expressed at the polls.”

According to the numbers released by the Independent National Electoral Commission headed by Mahmood Yakubu—whom the collective of the opposition parties asked to resign—Tinubu met the requirements to be declared the winner: he received 36 percent of more than 24 million votes cast, and more than 25 percent of the vote in more than two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states and Abuja, the nation’s capital.

The 70-year-old president-elect is a former governor of Lagos State in southwest Nigeria and is due for swearing-in on May 29 as the 16th President of Africa’s largest economy.

“We are grateful, O Lord,” his supporters sang at a victorious gathering in the nation’s capital, Abuja, while Bola Ahmed Tinubu said, “tonight is a night of friendship. We like what you did.”

In a statement released on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department accepts the results published by the Independent National Electoral Commission, referring to Tinubu as President-elect: “The United States congratulates the people of Nigeria, President-elect Tinubu, and all political leaders following the declaration by Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the results of the February 25 presidential election.”

The State Department describes the election as competitive and representative of “a new period for Nigerian politics and democracy.” In the statement, the Office of the State Department’s spokesperson, Ned Price, points out that “Each of the top three candidates was the leading vote-getter in 12 states, a remarkable first in Nigeria’s modern political era, reflecting the diversity of views that characterized the campaign and the wishes of Nigeria’s voters.”