INEC Boss, Jega To Give Jonathan Certificate Today

President Goodluck Jonathan, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who was declared the winner of the 2011 presidential election yesterday will be presented with his certificate of return today.

Professor Attahiru Jega, Chairman Independent National Electoral Commission,INEC, and the chief returning officer for the presidential election, will present the certificate to Jonathan at INEC office in Abuja.

The president elect emerged the winner of the election after fulfilling the required 25 percent of votes in 31 States of the federation.

The President also recorded an absolute majority of votes cast with total number of 22,495,187 votes.

General Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of Congress for Progressive Change, came second, scoring 25 per cent of the votes in 16 states and recording 12,214,853 votes in total.

Jonathan also won in all the 17 states in the south except in Osun State which was won by the candidate of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Nuhu Ribadu.

Agents of the CPC and some other political parties, however, refused to sign the result.

It was celebration galore yesterday in president Goodluck Jonathan’s home town, Otakeme, Okpa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, south-south Nigeria as INEC declared their son the president-elect after winning Saturday’s presidential poll.

Not only in Otakeme, the celebration extended to other towns in Okpa Local Government and even the Bayelsa State capital, Yenogoa.

Popular Nollywood artiste, Ini Edo yesterday opened a champagne and people of Otakeme and its environs began to celebrate the victory of their son, Goodluck.

Music was supplied by a local artiste who gave a live performance to the delight of Bayelsa State indigenes. The huge crowd danced and cheered the local musician as he dished out songs to the delight of everyone.

Impromptu parties also held in clubs and hotels in Bayelsa state capital, Yenagoa where all sorts of drinks were freely served. Most communities in Okpa Local Government and the state were not left out of the celebration yesterday.

President Goodluck Jonathan came into political limelight in Nigeria in 1999 when he was elected the deputy governor of Bayelsa state. He later became the governor.

In 2007, he contested with the late president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and became the vice president. When his former boss was incapacitated by illness, he became the Acting President and subsequently the president when Yar’Adua died on 5 May, 2010. He was sworn-in on 6 May, 2010.

With his election, Jonathan becomes the first elected president from the South-south geo-political zone in Nigeria.

—Oluokun Ayorinde/ Abuja & Seun Basuga/ Bayelsa