BREAKING: Tinubu Is APC Presidential Candidate

Former Governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has emerged the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress APC, after a keenly contested election that ran through to Wednesday morning.

Tinubu emerged winner with a total of 1271 votes.

He defeated former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, who garnered 316 votes to a second place, while the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, polled 235 votes.

Ahmad Lawan, the Senate President, polled 152 votes.

Emeke Nwajiuba got one vote while engineer Dave Umahi scored 38 votes.

Cross River State Governor, Ben Ayade scored 37 votes while Senator Rochas Okorocha, Pastor Tunde Bakare Tien Jack Rich, Ike Obasi all got zero vote.

Former governor of Zamfara State, Ahmed Sani Yerima, polled 4 votes.

Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, polled 47 votes. Former Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, got one vote.

There were 13 void votes.

The voting exercise began at about 01:40am Wednesday and was suspended for almost three hours over allegations of vote rigging.

Voting recommenced after the election committee replaced all the electoral officer and reordered the voting process with extra security agents.

The party failed to secure a consensus candidate despite intense negotiations that dragged into day two of the election.

While 11 Northern Governors announced their decision that the party should pick it presidential candidate from the southern part of the country, the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, announced Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, as the preferred choice of President Muhammadu Buhari.

This led to a sharp division within the National Working Committee of the party, which insisted that it was Adamu’s decision and not a collective one and should therefore be jettisoned.

After much fanfare, the convention settled down for election. This was after former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, the only female aspirant, Barrister Uju Kennedy, Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, former Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Godswill Akpabio, Jigawa State Governor, Abubakar Badaru and Senator Ajayi Boroffice all stepped down for Tinubu.

One of the aspirants, Nicholas Felix stepped down for the Vice President, Osinbajo.

14 aspirants contested but a total of 9 aspirants stepped down or did not turn up during the electoral process.

A total of 2203 voted after accreditation, with the delegates’distribution as follows: Anambra 63, Adamawa 63, Bayelsa 25, Bauchi 55, Benue 64, Borno 54 and Cross River 54.

Others are Delta 73, Enugu 51, Ekiti 48, Ebonyi 38, FCT 18, Gombe 33, Imo 52, Jigawa 81, Edo 54, Akwa Ibom 81, Lagos 60 Plateau 51, Katsina 102 and Kebbi 63.

The rest are Kwara 48, Kogi 63, Kaduna 61, Kano 126, Nasarawa 39, Niger 75, Ondo 54, Ogun 60, Oyo 99, Osun 90, Rivers 69, Sokoto 69, Taraba 46, Yobe 51 and Zamfara 42.