By: Sam Doak
March 1 2023
False: Election results were removed from INEC’s viewing portal.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
There is nothing to suggest that results were deleted from INEC's results viewing portal, as claimed.
Claim ID e141c116
Context
The Nigerian general elections were held on February 25. In the days since, numerous false narratives are circulating online concerning the integrity of the vote and the collation of results. One of these concerns the maintenance of the results viewing portal maintained by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to some social media users, results were deleted from the INEC website. This claim appears to have been communicated primarily through the sharing of a video that seemingly shows a person unsuccessfully attempting to view the results. In this video, the individual states, "I do not know what is going on with INEC. I thought they said we can see all the results in real time. This morning, I checked earlier, and I was able to see a few results on the website."
He says, "By 7 a.m., all the results that have been submitted are no longer available." Addressing INEC directly, he complains, "You promised us we would be able to view the results in real-time… but we cannot have access to this resource."
This video has been shared widely across numerous social media platforms. Perhaps most notably, it was shared by Blessing Okagbare. Okagbare, a professional athlete with a sizable Twitter following, shared the video while claiming, "INEC have just erased the election results at exactly 7 a.m. today from their portal."
In Fact
The results of the Nigerian general elections were not erased by INEC. They remain on INEC's results viewing portal and are publicly available. Logically visited this site at 10 a.m. GMT on March 1. At this time, results were available for 13,1197 of the county's 176,846 polling units.
To date, no reliable outlet has reported that election results have been deleted from INEC's results viewing portal. Given that the results of the general elections have been heavilyy monitored by the media and the public, it is highly unlikely that such an event would go unreported.
This is not to say that the uploading of results to INEC's site has been faultless. In recent days, INEC has come under criticism for the mistaken uploading of a photo of an unnamed woman in place of results for a polling unit in the State of Ekiti.
The Verdict
The results of the Nigerian general elections have been uploaded to INEC's results viewing portal as they have been collated by officials. Nothing on the site or elsewhere indicates that results have been deleted from this portal, as claimed on social media. This claim has therefore been marked as false.