Following the disputations that trailed the upload of the February 25 presidential election results to the INEC portal, different political actors have been posting election results on social media.
Prominent among the politicians that have been using their verified social media platforms to circulate election results is Senator Dino Melaye.
Melaye represented Kogi West Senatorial District in the Senate from 2015 to 2019. At the moment, he is a spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s presidential campaign council.
There have been allegations of result manipulations in Rivers State, particularly in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, where the state governor, Nyesom Wike, hails from.
CLAIM: The presidential election result uploaded to the result portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State differs from what the commission announced during the final collation in the state.
According to Melaye, the Labour Party (LP) originally got 70,186 votes, and the All progressives Congress (APC) got 12,547, but “INEC announced 80,239 for APC and 3,829 [votes] for LP”.
“Imagine this INEC magic,” he wondered.
VERIFICATION: Checks by FIJ on the result portal on Tuesday revealed that the polling unit results for the LGA in question had not been fully uploaded to the INEC result portal.
The council has 17 wards with varying number of polling units. We found that only the results for two wards had been fully uploaded to the website, while the remaining 15 wards were at different levels of upload but yet to be completed.
The two wards are Rumuodomaya (3A), Ward 4; and Rumueme (7C), Ward 11.
READ ALSO: FACT-CHECK: Did NITDA DG Attend ABU Zaria as Claimed by Chris Ngige?
CONCLUSION: Melaye could not have derived his figure from the INEC portal as claimed.
VERDICT: The claim is false and misleading.
Subscribe
Be the first to receive special investigative reports and features in your inbox.