No, this spreadsheet does not show Nigeria’s election results

This article is more than one year old.
Published on February 27, 2019 at 15:14
1 min read
By AFP Nigeria, Mayowa TIJANI

A screenshot of a spreadsheet shared by more than six thousand people on Facebook and Twitter claims that Atiku Abubakar of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has won the 2019 general election in Nigeria. This is false; the official presidential election results, announced by the electoral commission and certified by local and international observers, handed victory to sitting President Muhammadu Buhari.

Hope For Nigeria, a Facebook page notorious for misinformation and misleading content, uploaded the screenshot of a spreadsheet claiming to show authentic results from the just-concluded poll.

That post, which has been shared at least 5,700 times, says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “have exactly these same figures”.

Screenshot taken on February 27, 2019, showing a Facebook post containing false Nigerian election data

The post claims that Buhari polled 12,275,296 votes, while his main challenger Atiku had 14,442,550 votes to his name -- making him the winner of the election.

The same spreadsheet was shared by Eunice Atuejide, the presidential candidate of the National Interest Party (NIP). Her party was one of the smaller parties which declared support for Atiku before the election.

Screenshot of a tweet by Nigerian presidential candidate Eunice Atuejide showing fake election results

According to official INEC figures, Buhari won the election with 15,191,847 votes. Atiku polled 11,262,978 votes to come in second place.

That Muhammadu Buhari of the APC, having satisfied the requirement of the law and scored the highest number of votes is hereby declared the winner and is returned elected. #NigeriaDecides2019⁠Result pic.twitter.com/oz89PAz1QM
— INEC Nigeria (@inecnigeria) 27 February 2019

The US Mission in Nigeria and the Youth Initiative For Advocacy Growth & Advancement (YIAGA) are among a number of observers who have verified the election results.

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