Political outsider says says he will prove he won, after official result awarded victory to ruling party’s Bola Tinubu

The third-party candidate Peter Obi said he would challenge the outcome of Nigeria’s fiercely fought presidential elections after official results awarded victory to the ruling party’s candidate, Bola Tinubu.

“We will explore all legal and peaceful options to reclaim our mandate. We won the election and we will prove it to Nigerians,” Obi, the Labour party candidate, told reporters on Thursday in the capital, Abuja.

Final tally not expected until middle of next week as polling system hit by significant technical problems

Nigeria is in the midst of a tense wait as election authorities count tens of millions of votes that will determine who will become president in Africa’s most populous country and control its national assembly.

Voting on Saturday was marred by widespread delays and some scattered violence but fears of widespread chaos proved unfounded.

Vote largely peaceful in Africa’s largest economy but half of polling stations opened late due to technical issues

Polls have shut in Nigeria, after tens of millions cast their votes to decide a tight and unpredictable contest for the presidency and parliament of Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest economy.

The opening of more than half of all polling stations was delayed by at least an hour with many others suffering problems with new voting technology, civil society groups said. There was some sporadic violence across the country, including a suspected attack by Islamic extremists and some disruption by hired thugs.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu remains frontrunner for president but a new voice has captured the youth vote

The posters lining the roads of Lagos show the face of a smiling, bespectacled 70-year-old above a slogan promising renewed hope. Vote for Bola Ahmed Tinubu, pedestrians and drivers negotiating the chaos of the Nigerian commercial capital are told. Vote for peace, justice, unity.

On Saturday, the 6 million inhabitants of Lagos who have collected their voting cards will have to decide whether Tinubu and his ruling All Progressives Congress might fulfil any of these promises. So too will another estimated 81 million voters among the 220 million inhabitants of Africa’s most populous country. Their collective decision will determine the result of Nigeria’s seventh presidential elections since the end of military rule in 1999.

President Buhari condemns ‘act of terrorism’ after gunmen destroy part of prison walls in Owerri, Imo state

Almost 2,000 prisoners have escaped after a jailbreak in south-east Nigeria blamed on armed separatists, in the latest in a string of armed attacks on law enforcement authorities.

A prison facility and police command centre in the city of Owerri, Imo state, was targeted early on Monday by gunmen who destroyed part of the prison walls with explosives, freeing 1,844 inmates. One police officer was shot and injured in the attack.

Police violence prompted latest protests but anger at the government is growing

The signs held up by protesters have been clear. “We have no leaders,” said one. “The power of the youth is stronger than you that is in power,” ran another. A third read: “Nigeria bleeds.”

This last statement has been all too true over the last 24 hours. At least seven people are thought to have been killed when soldiers opened fire on a protest site in an upscale part of Lagos, the commercial and cultural centre of Africa’s most populous nation.

Nigerians are hoping vote will go ahead following delay over unspecified ‘challenges’

Nigerians are preparing to go to the polls again, hoping the presidential election will go ahead on Saturday morning after last weekend’s 11th-hour postponement.

The incumbent, Muhammadu Buhari, and his main challenger, Atiku Abubakar, resumed campaigning this week after the announcement by the independent national electoral commission (INEC) at 3am last Saturday, five hours before polling stations were due to open, that the vote was being pushed back.

The vote was rescheduled just five hours before polls were to open

Nigeria’s president and his main challenger have blamed each other for the last-minute postponement of the country’s election, delayed just five hours before polls were due to open.

Millions of Nigerians who had planned to vote woke up to the news on Saturday that the independent electoral commission (INEC) had deemed holding the poll “no longer feasible”. It will now be held on 23 February, INEC said.

Nigeria’s 84 million voters will go to the polls next weekend to give their verdict on Muhammadu Buhari. The country is Africa’s most populous, and by some measures has the largest economy on the continent. Nigeria celebrated Mr Buhari’s election in 2015 as not only a resounding rejection of the unpopular Goodluck Jonathan but also the first democratic transition since the return of civilian rule in 1999.

Unfortunately, the highlight of Mr Buhari’s presidency appears to have been the gaining of it. The economy struggles, and his pledges to curb rampant corruption have been applied to political opponents. Insecurity remains a pressing issue: notably, Boko Haram appears to be resurging despite the government’s repeated assurances that it has beaten the extremist group, and a spreading herder-farmer conflict has killed thousands. The president’s extended absence overseas, for medical treatment, prompted such persistent rumours of his death and replacement by a body double that he felt obliged to tell voters: “It’s the real me, I assure you.”