President Muhammadu Buhari, Presidential Candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku Abubakar, Presidential Candidate of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the 71 Presidential Candidates of other political parties that participated in the last Saturday’s polls will know their fate on Monday.
This is as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC begins the collation of results of the 2019 Presidential election across the country tomorrow.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman made this known while declaring open the National Collation Centre for the 2019 Presidential election located at the International Conference Centre, ICC, Abuja on Sunday.
Yakubu who is the Returning Officer for Presidential election after a brief opening ceremony, adjourned the Centre to 11am Monday when collation would fully commence as no State Returning Officer was not on ground present results.
He earlier announced that only Ekiti State has completed collation of the results of the Presidential elections and the Returning Officer was on his way to Abuja for submission.
Yakubu also said voting was ongoing in some parts of Abia, Bayelsa, Benue, Plateau Zamfara Sokoto and Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja due late arrival of materials and reconfiguration of the Smart Card Readers for the affected polling units in those areas.
According to him, INEC has, “received preliminary reports and are closely monitoring the situation in Rivers, particularly Bonny and Akoku-Toru LGAs. We are similarly awaiting the detailed report from our Imo office particularly in respect of the Owerri Municipal LGA. We are also aware of the incidents in some parts of Lagos, particularly Otota”.
In his opening remark, Yakubu said the presidential election result from each state would be presented at the Centre by the State Collation Officers for Presidential Election, SCOPE who would be accompanied by the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the state.
“From today the collation centre is hereby declared open until the final determination of the 2019 Presidential election. During the course of proceedings, there may be interludes or adjournments. This will be announced by the returning officer as the need arises.
“At the moment, no SCOPE is around. Some of them are expected tonight. Accordingly, proceedings are hereby adjourned. We will reconvene at 11 a.m, tomorrow Monday, Feb. 25, 2019 for the collation of results,” he said.
Yakubu explained that the SCOPE shall announce the scores of each political parties in the state, including the report of cancellations and areas where elections did not hold.
“The returning officer then invite comments and observations, if any from the poll agents.
The Returning Officer requests the SCOPE to hand over the original copy of form EC8B
“When all the SCOPES have presented their results, the returning officer shall display the sealed copies of the result sheets, EC8BA, which is the summary of results of elections on state by state basis.
“The EC8E which is the declaration of result of the election and EC40G3 which is the summary of registered voters in polling units where elections were cancelled or not held he said.
“The returning officer then completes form EC8B and announce the votes scored by each political party and thereafter invite the polling agents to endorse the form”, Yakubu.
The official opening of the National Collation Centre was attended by agents of the 73 political parties that fielded candidates in the election, including Hameed Ali, Controller – General, Nigerian Customs Service and Festu Keyamo, representing the APC, Osita Chidoka and Usman Bugaji, standing for the PDP, Observers, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Security Agencies, journalists, among others.
