The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially declared President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress as the winner of the 2019 presidential election, defeating

Atiku Abubakar of the PDP with over three million votes

Mahmood Yakubu said the duty of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to conclude and collate the presidential result for final declaration.

READ ALSO: 2019 presidential election: How Buhari, Atiku stand in 36 states, FCT according to INEC's official results (with infographics)

He said on the problem of accredited voters not adding up to number of voters, Yajubu said the problem affects less than 2 per cent of voters and thus does not affect the general conclusion.

He said in Yobe and Akwa Ibom, the numbers add up.

He said on the request of the opening of the commission’s backlend for verification and cross checking of voters, he says it is not a matter of law. He said the discussion can be continued after the end of this process.

Osita Chidoka representing the Peoples Democratic Party said there was a discrepancy of more than 1,600, 000 voters in terms of registered voters.

He said the cancelled votes affected more than 2 million voters. He claimed there were 5.1 million votes that cannot be accounted for and thus called for a rerun.

Scoresheet of the presidential candidates

In his response, Yakubu said the asserting that 5.1 million voters could not vote because of card readers is not true. He also said when card readers are deliberately circumvented, votes will be cancelled.

He said constitutionally, he has two roles. Firstly, as a the chief commissioner of the election, he will announce the national collation of results.

Secondly, as the returning officer for the presidential election, he will make an official declaration of the winner of the election.

PDP presidential result

The INEC chairman announced that Muhammadu Buhari of the APC scored 15, 191, 847 votes. while Atiku Abubakar of the PDP scored 11, 262, 978.

Total valid votes - 2, 732, 4583

Rejected votes 1, 289, 607

Total votes cast - 2, 861, 4190

Yakubu said following the collation, he said he now performs his role as returning officer and listed all the names of the presidential candidates and their total votes.

Mahmood Yakubu declares winner of presidential election

He said Muhammadu Buhari is declared winner of the election and returned elected.