Post falsely claims Nigerian official admitted to announcing bogus election results

“It’s Over for Ahmed Bola Tinubu as INEC official apoløgise announcing f@ke Election results (sic),” reads a post published on March 12, 2023.

Image

A screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, taken on April 5, 2023

Shared more than 16,000 times, the 14-minute-long video in the post features the photos of leading presidential candidates, election officials and the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu.

The narrator in the video claims 22 seconds into the clip that an “INEC official” released a statement “apologising to the Nigerian people for announcing fake election results during the presidential election.”

Just over a minute later in the video, a letter allegedly written by the official in question is displayed.

The post was published by an account that has a history of sharing content critical of the president-elect from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, and in support of his rival Peter Obi of the Labour Party.

INEC declared Tinubu the winner of the presidential ballot held on February 25, 2023.

Obi and fellow opposition candidate, Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party, argued that widespread irregularities and rigging marred the election.

Both men have petitioned an election tribunal, with each claiming to have won.

INEC has denied any illegal activity, although the commission acknowledged technical problems with the so-called BVAS voting machines.

But the claim that an official apologised for announcing a fake presidential election result is misleading.

Parliamentary seat

The letter shown in the video was written by Professor Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai of the faculty of clinical sciences at Bayero University in Kano, northwest Nigeria.

Yakasai served as the returning officer for the House of Representatives election held on February 25, 2023, the same day as the presidential election.

Dated February 27, 2023, his letter was addressed to the Kano state office of INEC.

Image

A screenshot of the letter Professor Ibrahim Adamu Yakasai wrote to INEC, taken on March 6, 2023

In the letter, Yakasai explained how he had announced the result for the 2023 Tudun Wada/Doguwa House of Representatives election “under duress” (archived here).

“The collation area was completely under siege, [and thugs were] threatening to burn down the INEC facility if I did not declare the result within one hour,” Yakubu wrote in the letter which was published widely by local news outlets.

To quell the mob, Yakasai said he announced APC’s Alhassan Doguwa as the winner “for fear of losing my life and other INEC officials who were with me” (archived here).

At a later press conference on March 8, 2023 Yakasai confirmed that APC polled 39,732, NNPP 34,798, and PDP 2,091 (archived here).

Although counting was already completed when Yakasai made his initial announcement, the narrow margin of victory meant a supplementary election should have been ordered before declaring a winner.

INEC guidelines stipulate no winner should be declared if the margin between the top two candidates is less than the number of registered voters affected by polling cancellations (archived here).

Yakasai said voting had been cancelled at 13 polling stations where 7,083 voters were registered.

INEC acknowledged that Doguwa was declared winner of the election under duress (archived here) and has since delisted him. A supplementary election in the 13 polling units will be held at a later date (archived here).