INEC IReV portal did not show Peter Obi won the 2023 presidential election in 19 states

Elizabeth Ogunbamowo

Claim: Results from the IReV portal show that Peter Obi won 19 states, including the FCT.

Verdict: Misleading. As of when this report was filed, results from polling units across Nigeria had yet to be completely uploaded on the IReV portal. 

Full Text

Following the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election of February 25, 2023, supporters of opposition parties have expressed their angst against the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Mr Tinubu, President-elect of Nigeria, was announced to have polled 8,794,726 votes defeating the 17 other candidates in the presidential race. 

He was followed by Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of the Labour Party took third place with 6,101,533 votes. 

The trio of Mr Tinubu, Mr Obi, and Mr Atiku reportedly won in 12 states each, while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) won one state.

However, some candidates in the election have expressed their disapproval of the result announced. On Monday, Mr Atiku led members of his party (PDP) in a protest at the INEC headquarters in Abuja to register his displeasure over the result. 

Mr Obi also said he won the presidential election and would pursue justice through the court.

The main bone of contention was the failure of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine to upload the results of the elections held on February 25.

Some Facebook users, who are also supporters of the ‘Obidient’ movement, have claimed Mr Obi won in 19 states of the federation, including the FCT. They also added that the PDP candidate only won eight states; the APC presidential candidate won in seven states, while the NNPP candidate won in two states.

The claim had gone viral on social media, which prompted us to fact-check the claim. It can be seen here, here and here.

Verification

DUBAWA visited the INEC’s result viewing portal. As of the time of filing this report at 05:47 pm on March 7, 2023, only results from 164,233 polling units have been uploaded on the IREV portal representing 92.87% of the total 176,846 polling units. This means the results of 12,613 polling units nationwide had yet to be uploaded on the IReV portal.

It is, therefore, misleading to dismiss the result announced by INEC and claim that Mr Obi won 19 states, including the FCT.

Also, the result uploaded by a Facebook user, Mazi Chiemena Samuel, which showed Labour Party’s victory in about 18 states, including the FCT, is not from the IReV portal. Instead, it is a report from a poll conducted by Nextier on January 27, 2023. 

Conclusion 

The claim that Obi won in 19 states based on results uploaded on INEC’s IReV is misleading.