Publisher of online news portal Saharareporters and the presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, Omoyele Sowore, took many by surprise after polling the third highest votes in the just concluded presidential election.

Several candidates on Saturday contested for the presidential stool but were defeated by Muhammdu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, who polled 15,191,847 votes while his main contender, Atiku Abubabakar of the Peoples Democratic Party got 11,264,977 votes to come second.

However, Sowore, 48, who was seen as the underdog during the electioneering campaign surprisingly, came third with 33,953 votes ahead of other big shots like Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria, ANN, 16,779 who polled and Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Democratic Party, YPP, who garnered 21,886 votes.

During the presidential debate, Sowore was not invited due to his controversial nature but Durotoye and Moghalu were invited.

Born February 16, 1971, Sowore a blogger, writer, lecturer, human rights activist and public commentator on national issues, is an indigene of Ondo State from South-Western Nigeria.

He is the founder and CEO of Sahara Reporters a notable online media platform that has been credited for high-level political, social and economic stories and reports, that have been described as sometimes controversial.

Mr. Sowore studied Geography and Planning at the University of Lagos, and then furthered his studies with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Columbia University, New York, USA.

During his undergraduate days in University of Lagos, Sowore was active in student unionism and was elected President of the Student Union Government between 1992-1994.

He declared interest in the presidential seat last year with the Take It Back Movement on the platform of AAC.