- Title: NIGERIA: GOVERNOR BOLA TINUBU RETAINS HIS LAGOS SEAT IN ELECTION
- Date: 20th April 2003
- Summary: (W7) LAGOS, NIGERIA (APRIL 20, 2003) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LAGOS ELECTORAL OFFICIALS PREPARE TO ANNOUNCE THE WINNER IN THE RACE FOR STATE GOVERNOR AGENT FOR A DEFEATED LAGOS OPPOSITION PARTY COMPLAINS THAT THERE WERE IRREGULARITIES IN THE VOTE COUNT POLICE OFFICE APPEALS FOR PEACE LAGOS STATE RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER KEMI ODEBIYI PREPARES TO ANNOUNCE THE RESULT (SOUNDBITE) (English) KEMI ODEBIYI, LAGOS STATE RESIDENT ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER, SAYING: "(Bola Tinubu) has scored the highest number of votes and is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected." SUPPORTERS OF LAGOS GOVERNOR BOLA TINUBU CELEBRATE IN THE VOTING HALL VARIOUS OF TINUBU APPEARS BEFORE A CROWD AT THE GOVERNORS MANSION TINUBU DANCING WITH A WHITE HANDKERCHIEF TO CELEBRATE HIS VICTORY VARIOUS OF TINUBU APPEARS BEFORE A CROWD AT THE GOVERNORS MANSION (U6) PORT HARCOURT, RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA (APRIL 20, 2003) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ELECTORAL INEC CENTRE WITH PARAMILITARY POLICE GUARDING IT VARIOUS OF ELECTION OFFICIALS PUTTING TOGETHER BALLOTS VARIOUS OF PARAMILITARY POLICE BEING BRIEFED BY COMMANDING OFFICER - PREPARING TO GO ON PATROL IN TENSE AREA, AS TENSIONS INCREASED AHEAD OF RESULTS PARAMILITARY POLICE GO DOWN THE STREET IN TRUCK, SHOOTING WITH GUNS (AUDIO)
- Embargoed: 5th May 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LAGOS, NIGERIA
- Country: Nigeria
- Topics: General,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA1V5IC657J2GYDUFEJ3D1V5DKL
- Story Text: The governor of Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos has retained his seat in gubernatorial elections, prompting celebrations among his supporters.
Bola Tinubu and his supporters danced and sang outside the governors mansion after he was declared the winner in Lagos, one of 36 states in the Nigerian federation.
"I thank God and I thank the people," he said minutes after the states electoral commissioner declared him the winner. With a population of roughly 13 million people Lagos is one of the world's largest cities.
President Olusegun Obasanjo took a commanding lead on Sunday (April 20) in early results from presidential election as opposition politicians accused authorities of ballot irregularities.
Obasanjo's People's Democratic Party was victorious in initial results from state governorship elections also held on Saturday (April 19), but foreign observers questioned an officially declared near 100 percent turnout in the southern oil-rich state where the opposition had called a boycott.
Obasanjo, a born-again Christian who won power in a military-supervised election in 1999 that ended 15 years of army rule, had won 3.3 million votes or 71 percent, figures from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) showed.
Main challenger Muhammadu Buhari, whose bastion is in the predominantly Muslim north of Africa's most populous country, had 1.2 million votes or 25 percent. There were 17 other candidates in the field.
Nigeria, which has spent most of its 43 years since independence from Britain under military rule, is trying to transfer power from one elected civilian government to another for the first time. Obasanjo and Buhari are both former military rulers.
The geographical spread of the votes counted so far in the presidential poll in the world's eighth biggest oil exporter of 120 million people was not immediately clear.
But early results from governorship elections in Nigeria's 36 states showed Obasanjo's party was in total command in five states in the southeast and his home southwest area.
The mood was tense in Port Harcourt, main city in the southern oil-rich Niger Delta region, a day after the opposition boycott call and violent incidents including at least three deaths.
Opposition officials said on Saturday that six of their supporters were killed by army and police in Bayelsa state in the Delta. Police put the toll at three.
Voting was generally peaceful on Saturday in Nigeria's major cities of Ibadan, Lagos and Kano.
But anger has been running high in the Delta states about environmental degradation caused by the oil industry and the way revenues are allocated. Clashes in March forced oil companies to shut down 40 percent of Nigeria's oil production.
Corruption, mismanagement and prestige projects have wasted tens of billions of dollars since an oil boom began in the 1970s.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in ethnic, religious and political clashes in Nigeria since the 1999 election that put Obasanjo in office. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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