Incumbent President Leading By Wide Margin In Nigeria's Presidential Election -April 18

Incumbent President
Goodluck Jonathan is expected
to win Nigeria's presidential
election held on Saturday by a
very wide margin, according to
results so far declared in most
states across the country and
monitored by Xinhua news
agency.
The results indicate that
Johnathan, the candidate of the
ruling People's Democratic Party
(PDP) has defeated presidential
candidates of the Congress for
Progressive Change (CPC), Gen.
Muhammadu Buhari, Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Nuhu
Ribadu, and of the All Nigeria
People Party (ANPP), Ibrahim
Shekarau, in all the 17 states in
southern Nigeria.
Meanwhile, at least five people
have been reported killed in
different parts of northeast
Nigeria's Bauchi state after the
presidential election. A riot also
broke out after a police officer
in northwest Nigeria's Katsina
State killed a man and wounding
two others.
Xinhua's reporters across the
country, Africa's most populous
nation, said the Nigerian leader
swept the most states in the oil-
rich southern region by
landslide. He also won five of
the six states in the southwest
zone.
The PDP, however, lost in
southwest Osun State, making it
the only state Jonathan lost in
the southwest to the ACN
candidate, Ribadu. Jonathan had
won more than the
constitutionally stipulated
minimum 25 per cent of the
votes, as he scored 188,409
votes.
Ribadu scored 299,711 votes.
The CPC candidate, Buhari was
not in contention for votes in
this state at all, as he scored a
miserable 6,997 votes.
The Nigerian leader also swept
central north Kogi State by a
wide margin of 399,816 votes
to Buhari's 132,201 votes. He
won by a landslide in Lagos,
Nigeria's commercial hub with
1,281,688 votes against
Ribadu's 427,203 votes and
Buhari's 189,983.
The PDP candidate also trounced
other candidates in Akwa Ibom
State. Jonathan garnered
1,165,629 votes, Ribadu of ACN
got 54,149 votes while Buhari
got 5,348 votes.
In Rivers State, Jonathan also
won convincingly, with
1,817,762 votes. He defeated
Ribadu who won only 13,182
votes and Buhari, 16,382 votes.
The president also won more
than one million votes in Abia
State while CPC and ACN
performed woefully. The CPC got
3,608 votes while ACN got 4,156
votes.
With results announced in more
than 25 states, and collation of
results in the remaining 11
states reaching an advanced
stage, the Nigerian leader has
won the highest number of
votes and also satisfied the
constitutional requirement of
winning 25 per cent of the
votes in two thirds of Nigeria's
36 states.
Jonathan also won the Federal
Capital Territory of Abuja,
defeating the CPC candidate
with 253,444 to Buhari's
131,576 votes.By these results,
Jonathan, has overcome the
constitutional hurdles to be re-
elected.
Section 133 (b) of the 1999
Constitution states that "A
candidate for an election to the
office of President shall be
deemed to have been duly
elected to such office where,
being the only candidates
nominated for the election - he
has not less than one-quarter of
the votes cast at the election in
each of at least two-thirds of all
the state in the federation and
the Federal Capital Territory,
Abuja".
In Katsina, security sources told
Xinhua that the killing of the
man sparked protests with the
smashing of windscreens and
burning of tyres on a major
street. A police officer had fired
his rifle Sunday afternoon and
killed a man and wounded two
others while trying to defend
himself as the victim's friends
tried to free him from the police.
The wounded were a man and a
woman, the source said, noting
that they were receiving
treatment in one of the general
hospitals in the state.
The police officer was said to
have gone to the Kofar Marusa
Quarters on patrol and was
trying to apprehend a man as a
suspected drug peddler. But
some of the suspect's friends
tried to forcibly free him from
the police and the police
officer's gun went off, firing
several rounds of ammunition.
The incident led to protests, as
youth took to the streets,
demanding that justice be done
over the killing. They burnt
tyres, smashed windscreens and
wielded various weapons as
they marched on the streets.
Some people, seizing
opportunity of the protests,
broke into shops and carted
away valuables that are yet to
be quantified in monetary
terms.
The timely intervention of army
and policemen kept the situation
from escalating. State police
commissioner Ibrahim Moh'd
expressed his displeasure over
the incident and summarily
dismissed the corporal. He
described the victim's death as
unfortunate and his killing
unwarranted, adding that the
officer would be charged for
murder.
He appealed to people of the
state to remain calm and go
about their normal businesses.
On his part, the police office