Efe Onodjae

Eligible male voters were seen playing football at Ago-Palace in Oshodi/Isolo local government area of Lagos on Saturday, February 25, 2023.  

The incident happened as early as 8:04 am this morning (Saturday) when millions of Nigerians were trooping out across the country to vote in the much anticipated Presidential and National Assembly elections.

Registered voters/PVCs

The number of registered voters released by the electoral body, Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the 2023 general elections are 93,468,008. While 87,209,007 people have collected their Permanent Voter’s Cards, PVCs, 6,259,229 PVCs remain uncollected.

Security personnel

Already, the Police have deployed 310,973 personnel across the over 176,000 polling units in the country for the elections.

Polling Units

Specifically, there are 176,846 polling units but elections would only take place in 176,606 as 240 of the total figure have no registered voters according to the INEC.

Presidential candidates

There are 18 candidates contesting for presidential election to succeed President Buhari. Among them are Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC; Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP; and Rabiu Kwakwanso of the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP.

Others include Adewole Adebayo of the Social Democratic Party, SDP; Dumebi Kaachikwu of the African Democratic Congress, ADC; Kola Abiola of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP; and Omoyele Sowere of the African Actin Congress, AAC.

Also in the race are Felix Osakwe, National Rescue Movement NRM; Prof Peter Umeadi, All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA; Dan Nwanyanwu, Zenith Labour Party, ZLP; Oluwafemi Adenuga, Boot Party, BP; Christopher Imumolen, Accord; Hamza Al-Mustapha, Action Alliance, AA; Sani Yabagi Yusuf, African Democratic Party, ADP; Malik Ibrahim Ado, Young Progressive Party, YPP; and Osita Nnadi, Action People’s Party, APP.

The only female candidate jostling for the highest political seat is Chichi Ojei of the Allied Peoples Movement, APM.

National Assembly candidates

4,223 National Assembly candidates are contesting in today’s general elections. However, the murder of Labour Party’s Enugu East Senatorial candidate, Oyibo Chukwu by unknown gunmen while returning from a campaign outing on Thursday, February, 23 has reduced the number of candidates to 4,222 with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) postponing the senatorial poll in the district to allow for the Labour Party present another candidate.

Nigerians will elect 469 lawmakers out the over 4,000 candidates vying. The election will take place in 176,846 Polling Units across 109 Senatorial Districts and 360 Federal Constituencies across the 36 States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Out of the total number of 1,101 Senatorial Candidates, 1,008 are males and 92 females; while out of the total number of 3,122 House of Representatives Candidates, 2,832 are males while 288 are females.