The All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, has claimed landslide victories in Katsina, Niger, Kano and Yobe, while winning with slimmer margins in Kaduna and Sokoto.

He polled 1,232,133 votes in Katsina, his home state, in Saturday’s presidential election.

Prof. Fatima Mukhtar, the State Collation Officer, said Buhari defeated Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who got 308,056 votes.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Buhari won in all the 34 local government areas of the state with a wide margin.

However the number of votes recorded by Buhari is about 100,000 fewer than the 1,345,441 he got in 2015, when he ran against former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The state has a total of 3.2 million registered voters, but only 1,628,865 voters were accredited during the election, Mukhtar said.

The total votes cast was 1,619,186 and 63,712 votes were rejected.

In Niger State, Buhari also claimed a landslide, winning all the 25 local councils, leaving Atiku trailing far behind.

Prof. Angela Mary, the State Collation Officer for the Presidential election, announced the result at the INEC headquarters in Minna on Monday night.

Mary, who is the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University Lokoja, said Atiku scored 218,052 votes.

She said the total number of registered voters was 2,375,568 while the total number of accredited voters was 911,964.

Mary added that the number of valid votes was 851,937 while 45,039 votes were rejected.

She also said the total number of votes cast was 896,976 votes.

NAN reports that, a breakdown of the result announced on local government basis as announced by local government collation officers showed that Buhari won in 25 council areas in the state.

In Kano and Yobe, Atiku failed to make the minimum 25 per cent of the votes cast.

In the result announced in Kano, Buhari polled 1,464,768 (78.9%) of the vote cast, while Atiku polled 391,573 (21.1%).

A candidate must win at least 25 per cent of the votes in two thirds of the state, apart from winning majority votes to win the presidential election.

From results declared so far, Atiku failed to make the minimum cut in Yobe as well, scoring about 10 per cent.

In Yobe, Atiku polled 50,763 votes, while APC got 497,914 votes out of the 559,365 valid votes cast.

In Kaduna, Buhari won with 993,482 votes. Prof. Bello Shehu, the Returning Officer, announced the result on Monday in Kaduna.

Shehu said Atiku scored 613,318 votes in the poll. He said the APC won in 14 local government areas of the state, while the PDP won in nine local government areas.

In Sokoto, which Buhari also won, the margin was, however, slimmer, according to the results collated and declared on Monday by the Chief Returning Officer of the state, Prof. Yahuza Bello.

Bello, who is the Vice-Chancellor Bayero University, Kano State, said Buhari scored the highest votes of 490,333 in 19 councils.

He said Atiku scored 361,604 votes out of 871,891 total votes cast while 54,049 votes were voided.

Sokoto is under the control of Governor Aminu Tambuwal, a member of the PDP.

•Based on NAN reports.