with Godwin Akanfe at Teslim Balogun Stadium
Good day Nigerians, it is the second day of the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress, holding at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, in Surulere, Lagos.
Going head-to-head are erstwhile head of state, General Muhammadu Buhari, former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha, Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwanso and the publisher of the Leadership newspaper, Samuel Nda-Isaiah.
Voting by delegates was done overnight and all of the presidential aspirants delivered convincing speeches, a last attempt at swaying the delegates.
(8:45 am) Voting is finally over. Majority of the delegates are leaving, having been here since yesterday. Many leaving, are citing fatigue as their reasons
(8:50 am) One of the leading aspirants, Muhammadu Buhari leaves the venue, maybe to freshen up. He was the last candidate to leave.
(9:00 am) They are about to merge the votes together so that sorting and counting can start. The real fun is about to commence.
A quick word on the conduct of the vote, and the convention itself. Nothing was left to chance in the planning and execution, which, it must be said, has been exemplary by Nigerian standards. Asides from the lateness which is a perennial feature of Nigerian life, every other thing has gone like clockwork.
There was a little argument involving delegates from Delta State about accreditation and ballots, but it was resolved very quickly. That has been the only hiccup since yesterday. We wait patiently for counting to commence.
(9:10 am) The votes are now being combined before counting. What you see is box 14 of 52.
(9:30 am) Sorting has started. Mild interest as the agents insisted that they receive the votes before placing in the box. First 20 votes went 15 to Buhari, 5 to Kwankwaso, Rochas was the first other person to get a vote. Buhari in an early lead, Sam Nda-Isaiah has not gotten a single mention. Almost 100 votes counted.
(9:45 am) With somewhere between 500 and a thousand votes sorted, and announced, General Buhari is the clear front-runner with Kwankwaso a distant second running neck and neck with Atiku. Rochas is slightly behind both men, and Sam Nda-Isaiah has still not gotten a mention.
(10:05 am) Sam Nda-Isaiah finally gets a vote. The crowd goes wild with excitement at this wonderful development.
(10:45 am) We spoke with APC national publicity secretary, Lai Mohammed, who expressed the party’s penchant for transparent democracy.
(11:00 am) Lai Mohammed: “For too long a time, the PDP has very unfairly criticised our party for lacking internal democracy. Our response has always been that it was too early and premature to make such an accusation because this party is less than 18 Months old and this is our first major outing outside the National Convention where we elected our officials.”
“But all attempts to convince Nigerians fell on deaf ears because of some of our members who left the party mostly because they failed in their quest to become officers of the party, or the failed attempts of some of their sponsors. But we are confident, and determined to show Nigerians that this is a new party that truly believes in democracy.”
“So we have used this opportunity to showcase without any doubt the abundance of Internet democracy in our party. This is why we resolved, that every aspect of these primaries will be subjected to public scrutiny.”
(11:05 am) The announcing of the name on the ballots, which was previously being done by Abubakar Kawu Baraje, has now been taken over by Boss Mustapha.
(12: 00 pm) Sorry for the long break in transmission, like most around here, we are finding the vote counting a bit tedious. A small commotion down there lightened things up a little, but we’ve now returned to the monotonous sotto vocce of Buhari, Buhari, Buhari, Kwankwaso, Buhari, Buhari, Rochas, Buhari, Buhari, Atiku…
(12:50 pm) Sam Nda-Isaiah now has 7 votes…
(2: 00 pm) They have finished sorting the ballot papers, and are now formally counting the votes. Based on what we heard during the sorting out process, YNaija is calling this as a victory for Major General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), who by the end of today will be officially declared the APC’s presidential candidate.
The aim of the meet is to ensure that the right person is chosen, and possibly announced during Buhari’s acceptance speech.
We have been informed that the front runners are Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, former Lagos attorney-general, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, former Ekiti state governor, Rivers State governor, Rotimi Amaechi and Imo state governor, Rochas Okorocha.
“If he reaches 3607 votes, then he has won this primaries as none of the other candidates will be able to match his score.”
No as Atiku already has 954 votes, all Buhari needed was half of the remaining uncounted votes for
well-done
teamAPC/GMB
well-done we really appreciate ur contribution toward change
teamAPC/GMB
Long life gen.Buhari,the mases are with you. ‘We shal see the end of dark horses of coroption’ by the gras of God.
keep doing the good work, keep updating us! Together we shall give thanks to God.
I’m realy happy 4 winds of change thats blowing! BUHARI 4 A BETTER NIGERIA!!
well done good citizen of Nigeria.it now for God to decide who will lead us well.but dont take law or power into your hand .our God is in charge.even well prophet of doom predited their mind so called United state of America they failed,and they will still fail again.our ex president and presence one should stay in one boat one after d other they all have their taste.
buhari is going know where,, goodluck we know
Nigeria most surely receive a divine turn around… In Buhari we trust
We all want buhari to clean nigeria from all these rubbish of pdp. We are all dying of hunger bad governance impunity corruption tribalism nepotism all u can think off
Good update, keep it on.