{"id":12810,"date":"2023-01-11T09:53:32","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T08:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=12810"},"modified":"2023-01-11T09:53:35","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T08:53:35","slug":"sending-details-to-8014-doesnt-work-heres-how-to-confirm-your-polling-unit-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/sending-details-to-8014-doesnt-work-heres-how-to-confirm-your-polling-unit-online\/","title":{"rendered":"Sending details to 8014 doesn\u2019t work; here\u2019s how to confirm your polling unit online"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: <\/strong>To locate your polling unit, send your PVC 9-digit code to 8014.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: FALSE<\/strong>. Our findings and comments from INEC show this code is not related to INEC or locating your PU.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) is ongoing as Nigerians gear up to select new leaders to come on February 25, 2023.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In view of this, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) created additional collection centres <\/a>to fast-track the process.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amid the collection, which is expected to run till January 25<\/a>, 2023, a viral WhatsApp message stated that sending the nine-digit polling code of your PVC to 8014 will give you the address of your Polling Unit (PU).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The message, aimed at getting people to vote, noted not knowing your polling unit is no excuse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don’t know my polling unit is not an excuse for you not to vote. Simply text the nine digits code of your PVC to 8014, and your polling unit (Booth) address will be sent to you,\u201d the message reads.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the WhatsApp message.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the lead-up to the election, the public is eager to consume information related to their rights to help decision-making, hence the need to ensure the information available is credible.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A Polling Unit<\/a> (PU) is where a voter can register to vote on election day. To locate your PU, you can use the Polling Unit Locator Tool by typing in your State, Local Government Area (LGA) and ward.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the PU locator tool searches and results.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

INEC is not the source of the code<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We reached out to the commissioner for information and voter education, Festus Okoye, who said the commission is not the source of the said code as the commission has not released any code.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe did not release this,\u201d Mr Okoye responded to the enquiry message from our researcher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, responding to our enquiry, shared a tweet <\/a>by INEC on the procedure for locating your PVC collection centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Independent National Electoral Commission has further simplified the collection of Permanent Voters\u2019 Cards at the ward level. Registered voters can simply text specific information to any of the two dedicated numbers below to locate their collection points.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers on the flyer are; 0906-283-0860 and 0906-283-0861. Voters are to send the name of their state, LGA and ward to these numbers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image shared by INEC on Twitter with directions on locating PVC collection centres.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0What, then, is this viral code for, and how does it work?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our researcher followed the instruction contained in the message by sending the nine-digit PU code to 8014, but the response had nothing to do with the polling unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the response after sending the code.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Subsequently, a text message was received from another number (9001) speaking of a request for mobile service, which attracted a charge of N50. The message allowed the user to reply with the number one to accept or two to reject.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After accepting, a congratulatory message noted that the user\u2019s reply had been received and confirmation would be sent soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the message received.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

24-hours later, this \u201cconfirmation\u201d is yet to come in. Although we cannot determine what this code requested for mobile service, it is not related to locating your PU or PVC.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our findings and comments from INEC show this code is neither related to INEC nor locating your PU. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: To locate your polling unit, send your PVC 9-digit code to 8014. Verdict: FALSE. Our findings and comments from INEC show this code is not related to INEC or locating your PU.\u00a0 Full Text  The collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) is ongoing as Nigerians gear up to select new leaders to come on February 25, 2023.\u00a0 In view of this, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) created additional collection centres to fast-track the process.\u00a0 Amid the collection, which is expected to run till January 25, 2023, a viral WhatsApp message stated that sending the nine-digit polling code of your PVC to 8014 will give you the address of your Polling Unit (PU).\u00a0 The message, aimed at getting people to vote, noted not knowing your polling unit is no excuse.  \u201cI don’t know my polling unit is not an excuse for you not to vote. Simply text the nine digits code of your PVC to 8014, and your polling unit (Booth) address will be sent to you,\u201d the message reads.\u00a0 In the lead-up to the election, the public is eager to consume information related to their rights to help decision-making, hence the need to ensure the information available is credible.\u00a0 Verification A Polling Unit (PU) is where a voter can register to vote on election day. To locate your PU, you can use the Polling Unit Locator Tool by typing in your State, Local Government Area (LGA) and ward.\u00a0 INEC is not the source of the code We reached out to the commissioner for information and voter education, Festus Okoye, who said the commission is not the source of the said code as the commission has not released any code.\u00a0 \u201cWe did not release this,\u201d Mr Okoye responded to the enquiry message from our researcher.  The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, responding to our enquiry, shared a tweet by INEC on the procedure for locating your PVC collection centre.\u00a0 \u201cThe Independent National Electoral Commission has further simplified the collection of Permanent Voters\u2019 Cards at the ward level. Registered voters can simply text specific information to any of the two dedicated numbers below to locate their collection points.\u201d The numbers on the flyer are; 0906-283-0860 and 0906-283-0861. Voters are to send the name of their state, LGA and ward to these numbers.  \u00a0What, then, is this viral code for, and how does it work? Our researcher followed the instruction contained in the message by sending the nine-digit PU code to 8014, but the response had nothing to do with the polling unit. Subsequently, a text message was received from another number (9001) speaking of a request for mobile service, which attracted a charge of N50. The message allowed the user to reply with the number one to accept or two to reject.\u00a0 After accepting, a congratulatory message noted that the user\u2019s reply had been received and confirmation would be sent soon.\u00a0 24-hours later, this \u201cconfirmation\u201d is yet to come in. Although we cannot determine what this code requested for mobile service, it is not related to locating your PU or PVC.\u00a0 Conclusion  Our findings and comments from INEC show this code is neither related to INEC nor locating your PU. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[5,1571,1574],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[1106],"class_list":["post-12810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elections","category-fact-check","category-media-literacy"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-3kC","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1106,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lois-ugbede","display_name":"Lois Ugbede","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Lois.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Lois.jpg"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/PU.jpg?fit=650%2C334&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12812,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12810\/revisions\/12812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12810"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=12810"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=12810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}