• Peter Obi of the Labor Party narrowly defeated Bola Tinubu of the ruling party in Lagos.
• A major breakthrough for a third-party candidate.
• The head of the election commission must still certify the outcome.

Results from state election officials reveal that a third-party candidate in Nigeria‘s hotly disputed presidential election pulled off a stunning upset by winning in the country’s largest city, Lagos.

According to reports, Peter Obi of the Labor Party narrowly defeated Bola Tinubu of the ruling party in his home district.

Former Lagos State Governor Mr. Tinubu intends to base his presidential campaign on his performance there.

The head of the election commission must still certify the outcome.

Yet Mr. Tinubu conceded defeat in Lagos, claiming that as a democrat, he was obligated to accept the results of any election.

“People have a right to vote for the candidate of their choice,” he said in a statement released by his campaign team.

He also appealed for calm from his supporters after his loss, following reports of violence in parts of Lagos against traders from the Igbo community, like Mr. Obi.

Mr. Obi’s apparent victory in Lagos, though a major breakthrough for a third-party candidate, is not necessarily a huge surprise.

The city is home to many young, educated people, as well as a large Igbo population – all groups widely seen as backing his presidential bid.

Ondo, Ekiti, and Kwara are three other states in Mr. Tinubu’s southern heartland that he has won.

President-elect Muhammadu Buhari’s home state of Adamawa, Atiku Abubakar of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Katsina were all won by Atiku.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) chief announced the results from Ekiti, Kwara, Ondo, and Osun at the organization’s headquarters in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

The remaining results are still considered tentative.

It is still far too early to predict who will become the next president of Nigeria because 29 states and the nation’s capital, Abuja, have still to make their declarations.

Amnesty International, a rights organisation, encouraged Nigerian authorities to look into what it described as widespread violence directed towards voters over the weekend in sections of Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Edo, and Delta states.

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