By Nigerian Fact-checkers’ Coalition.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Sunday morning begins the result collation of the 2024 Edo State governorship election held yesterday.
As the collation is ongoing in Benin city, Edo State capital, our team of journalists, researchers, fact-checkers, social media monitors, editors, and OSINT experts drawn from the coalition partners, are monitoring social media platforms, TVs and blogs from our Lagos and Abuja Election Situation Rooms to debunk election-related misinformation and disinformation content targeted at inciting violence or influencing the outcome of election.
Do you have an election-related claim you want us to fact-check?
Reach out to the NFC via WhatsApp here.
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This page is constantly being updated with verified checks. Kindly scroll downward or refresh this page to latest checks.
Here are the quick-checks:
Claim 1
CLAIM: An X user, @unlimitedeniola, posted that INEC has moved the declaration of results for the Edo elections to another location while allowing only APC agents access to the location.
THE FINDINGS: Collation has not begun as at the time of this post by 10:02AM. Daily Trust has reported that collation is yet to begin at the state head office of INEC in Benin, Edo State as at 10:44 am on Sunday despite promises by Dr. Anugbum Onuoha, INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, who said that the collation would kick off by 10am. Similarly, Premium Times reported that INEC moved the commencement of the election collation to 11 am, and not location.
VERDICT: INCORRECT
SOURCES: Daily Trust, Premium Times.
Claim 2
CLAIM: An X user, @hon_sadiq claimed that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) held a press conference and announced Edo election results.
THE FINDINGS: Checks by the NFC show that the PDP leadership addressed the press in the early hours of Sunday, Sept 22 in Benin city, Edo state. During the press conference, the governor of Adamawa state, Ahmadu Fintiri reeled out results reportedly collated by the agents of the party in some Local Government Areas of the state. However, he later clarified that he did not announce results but only informed the public of the exact figures from the party’s agents.
VERDICT: CORRECT
SOURCES: PulseNG, The Cable
Claim 3
CLAIM: An X user, @emmaikumeh, claimed the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won 4 out 5 Local Government Areas in Edo Central which include Esan South-East, Igueben, Esan North East, Esan West and Esan Central LGAs.
THE FINDINGS: Checks by NFC showed that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) won Esan South East, Esan North East and Igueben LGAs in Edo Central Senatorial District of the state. However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) won both the Esan Central and Esan West LGAs of the state.
VERDICT: INCORRECT
SOURCES: Daily Trust, Channels TV
Claim 4
CLAIM: An X user, @linhsense1, claimed that the APC is leading with 212,442 votes after the collation of governorship election results from 15 out of 18 LGAs in Edo state. The tweet was made at 2:13 pm, a few minutes before the 16th LGA’s result was announced.
THE FINDINGS: Before the 16th LGA was announced, the total sum of results from 15 out of 18 LGAs stood at:
APC: 212,442
PDP: 178,471
LP: 11,232
With two more LGAs left, it now stands at:
APC: 244,549
PDP: 195,954
LP: 13,348
VERDICT: CORRECT
SOURCES: The Cable Index, INEC
Claim 5
CLAIM: An X user @TaofeekBabalol4 Posted an image of collated results from 16 LGA’s from PDP, APC and LP while claiming that APC leads with 244,549 votes, PDP with 187,880 votes and LP with 21,420 votes. Also stating that the difference between Apc and PDP’s vote is 56,669.
THE FINDINGS: Media reports by The ICIR, The Punch and The Cable Index show that APC leads with 244,549 votes while PDP and LP follow behind with 195,954 and 13,348 respectively.
The difference between APC and PDP votes is 48,595.
VERDICT: INCORRECT
SOURCES: ICIR, The Cable and The Punch
Claim 6
CLAIM: A TikTok user, “@Pokotvnaija”, on September 21, 2024, posted a video with an image purported to show the collated results for People’s Democratic result (PDP) in some Local Government Areas in Edo State. These include: Esan North East with 13,579 votes, Esan Central, with 10,794 votes, Igueben, with 7,870 votes, Uhunmwonde with 16,741 votes, and Egor with 27,621 votes, among others.
THE FINDINGS: News reports by Punch Newspaper and The ICIR show that the results released by INEC for the PDP are as follows: Esan North East, 12,522 votes; Esan Central, 8,618 votes; Igueben, 8,470 votes; Uhunmwonde, 9,339 votes; and Egor, 14,658 votes. This clearly shows that the TikTok user had inflated the results for PDP.
VERDICT: INCORRECT
SOURCES: Punch Newspaper and The ICIR.
Claim 7
CLAIM: Some social media users have published a video wherein some market women were seen protesting against Godwin Obaseki, current governor of Edo State. In the video, the market women could be heard singing a song insulting Obaseki. The video was published with the impression that the protest took place on Sunday, Sept 22 amid the ongoing announcement of the 2024 Edo governorship election results by INEC.
THE FINDINGS: Checks by NFC revealed that the video is not recent and has been online since February 2023. Although NFC couldn’t ascertain the accurate context of the video, it was posted on YouTube by @EdoChannelTV on February 15, 2023.
VERDICT: INCORRECT
SOURCES: OSINT, Google, and YouTube.
Claim 8
CLAIM: An X user, @TENIBEGILOJU202, shared a claim attributed to Adams Oshiomhole, the senator representing Edo North.
The claim reads: “BREAKING!!! FOR DEMOCRACY TO THRIVE, PDP AND LP MUST ACCEPT THE PAIN OF RIGGING… OSHIOMOLE. At this point, we must do everything possible to ensure that the APC leaves the building or else we are doomed forever”.
The X user also included a video from Channels TV of Oshiomhole speaking at a press conference.
THE FINDINGS: The video from Channels TV is captioned: “Osun governorship election”. The election took place in September 2018. So it has nothing to do with the Edo State governorship election. We also found out that the video was originally posted online on 28 September 2018. Then it was captioned: “Osun governorship election: Oshiomhole denies allegation of rigging by APC”.
Oshimhole was reacting to allegations by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the governorship election in Osun was rigged. He said that on the part of the PDP if they win an election, it will mean that the election was free and fair. But if they lose… It means the election was rigged.
At no point in the video did Oshimhole say the following: “At this juncture, we must do everything possible to ensure that APC exit the building or else we are doomed forever.”
VERDICT: MISLEADING
SOURCE: Channels TV.
Claim 9
READ NIGERIA’S 2023 GENERAL ELECTION LIVE-CHECKS BELOW:
- LIVE-CHECK: Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential and National Assembly Elections
- LIVE-CHECK: Results from Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential, National Assembly elections trickle in
- LIVE-CHECK: Claims about results of Nigeria’s 2023 Presidential, NASS elections circulate online
- LIVE-CHECK: Nigeria’s 2023 Governorship and State Assembly Elections
- LIVE-CHECK: Collation of Votes for Nigeria’s 2023 Governorship and State Assembly Elections ongoing (UPDATED)
*This fact-check report was jointly researched and written by members of the Nigerian Fact-Checkers’ Coalition (NFC): Nurudeen Akewushola, Salako Emmanuel, Fatimah Quadri (FactCheckHub); Elizabeth Ogunbamowo, Cole Praise, Lateef Sanni, Lademi Aborisade, Philip Anjorin, Silas Jonathan, Sunday Awosoro, Mohammed Taoheed, Amarachi Onwuzulike, Asiat Jimoh (Dubawa); Catherine Adeniyi, Motunrayo Joel, Allwell Okpi, Adelola Semilore, Denzel Amobi, Muktar Balogun (Africa Check); Caleb Ijioma, Precious Ewuji, Agbelusi Samuel (RoundCheck); Orji Ruth (NatureFacts); Ayodele Oluwafemi, Claire Mom (The Cable); Faruk Shuaibu (Daily Trust); Kamal Idress (WikkiTimes); Hannah Ajakaiye, Olayinka Oladokun, Efemena Ighofose (FactsMatterNG); Pascal Ibe and Blessing Otoibhi (ICIR); and Rosemary Ajayi (Digital Africa Research Lab).
It was edited and approved for publication by Kemi Busari, Lois Ugbede (Dubawa), David Ajikobi (Africa Check), Ajibola Amzat (CCIJ), and Opeyemi Kehinde (FactCheckHub) and Bamas Victoria (ICIR).
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