Nigeria presidential elections: Peter Obi wins key Lagos state as vote-counting continues

The vote counting in Nigeria's presidential polls is underwayafter people cast their votes in huge numbers. However, provisional results have started to trickle in. As per reports, Nigerian presidential candidate Peter Obi received the maximum number of votes in the key state of Lagos, Africa’s biggest city. Nearly 90 million people were eligible to cast their votes for appointing the successor of President Muhammadu Buhari.

Labour Party's Obi got 582,454 votes while All Progressives Congress (APC) party's Bola Tinubu received 572,606 votes, as per electoral commission data on Monday. Lagos was earlier a bastion for Tinubu as he was a former governor of the city.

The first results from Ekiti state showed a majority of votes for president cast in favour of Tinubu. Nigeria is marred by an economic crisis and the elections are a hope for the people to choose Buhari's successor, who can effectively take back the country on track.

Two parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party, have run Africa’s most populous nation for a quarter of a century. Obi left Nigeria's main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) days ahead of the presidential primary in May.Following this, the PDP chose 75-year-old former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as its presidential candidate.

Votes are being counted by hand at local polling stations in Nigeria. Results are uploaded online to Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) central database IReV, in a bid to improve transparency.

Officials from the INEC in several states said they had been delayed due to the late arrival of vehicles to transport them.

Buhari, a retired army general, is stepping down after serving the maximum eight years allowed by the constitution but failing to deliver on his pledge to bring back order and security across Nigeria, Africa's top oil-producing nation.

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