By: Sam Doak
February 28 2023
False: Results for Ekiti State were published prior to the Nigerian general elections.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
This image appears to have been created after the results were reported. There is no evidence that election results were predetermined.
Claim ID 92db7aa7
Context
The Nigerian general elections were held on February 25. In the days since, numerous false narratives have arisen concerning the vote and its results. One post, uploaded to Twitter on February 26, has had a particularly large reach, having been retweeted by users on the platform over 1,100 times.
The post reads, "Ekiti State results were already uploaded as far back as 20th February @inecnigeria." The image attached shows what appear to be electoral results, showing the All Progressives Congress receiving 66 percent of votes cast. The image has the Peoples Democratic Party receiving 29 percent of votes and the Labour Party at 3 percent.
While the post does not explicitly state this, the implicit claim appears to be that there was electoral fraud in Ekiti State. For the results to be available on February 20, as claimed in this post, they would have to have been decided before Nigerians cast their votes. Other posts make it clear that this image is being interpreted this way. One tweet, shared over 2,000 times, cites the image as proof that "Ekiti State result must be reviewed."
In Fact
The results for Ekiti State were not published on February 20, as claimed. The official results portal, maintained by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), allows users to view election results by State and polling unit. This makes it possible to verify that there are no results dated prior to the election on February 25. In addition, the image provided on the Twitter post making this claim bears little resemblance to INEC's official website.
Results for Ekiti State were announced on February 26 by Prof. Akeem Lasisi, INEC's State Collation officer. According to Lasisi, Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate for the ruling All Progressives Congress, won in the State with 201,494 votes. The Peoples Democratic Party received 89,554 votes, and the Labour Party finished with 1,139.
While the results included in the Twitter post in question are close to the officially announced results, it should be noted that this image appeared on social media after the results were announced and reported through mainstream news outlets. No evidence indicates its author had prior knowledge of the results.
The Verdict
The election results for Ekiti State were not published online prior to the vote, as has been claimed online. The results were announced on February 26, and the screenshot provided bears little resemblance to INEC's election results website. This claim has therefore been marked as false.