General Muham­madu Buhari (retd), the presi­dential candi­date of the All Progres­sives Congress (APC), defeated President Goodluck Jonathan in the elections conducted inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja by 18 votes.

While Buhari polled a total of 613 votes in the two polling units, Jonathan scored a total of 595 votes, in the two poll­ing units-Unit 021 and 022-lo­cated side-by-side within the villa.

At Unit 021, Jonathan beat Buhari to second position with 293 votes while the APC can­didate scored 265 votes.

At the second polling booth, Unit 022, Buhari emerged winner with 348 votes while Jonathan polled 302.

For the Senatorial election in Unit 021, PDP polled 286 votes to beat APC with 260.

In Unit 022, APC polled 337 votes while PDP scored 281 votes.

For the House of Represen­tatives election in Unit 022, APC polled 334 to beat PDP to distant second with 241 votes.

For Unit 021 however, it was a close contest between APC that won with 255 votes and PDP that polled 254.

A total of 575 voters were accredited out of the 2,181 registered voters for Unit 021 while 770 voters were accred­ited out of the 2,278 voters registered for Unit 022.

The sorting and counting of the votes ended at 11:30 p.m., necessitating some voters to illuminate the venue with the headlamps of their cars.

Meanwhile, Jonathan has returned to the Presidential Villa after casting his vote in his hometown, Otuoke, Bay­elsa State. He was said to have re­turned at about 8:30 p.m.

He was inside his official residence while the votes cast in the two units were being counted.

•Adapted from Sunday Sun. Photo shows Buhari and Jonathan.