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POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

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CLAIM 1: 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.

FINDINGS: Collation has yet to begin as of the time of this post. Daily Trust reported that collation is yet to start at the state head office of INEC in Benin, Edo State as of 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 10 am. Similarly, Premium Times reported that INEC moved the commencement of the election collation to 11 am, not the location.

POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: INCORRECT

SOURCES: Daily Trust, Premium Times

CLAIM 2: An X user, @hon_sadiq claimed that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) held a press conference and announced Edo election results.

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. 

POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: CORRECT 

SOURCES: PulseNG, The Cable

CLAIM 3: 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.

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. 

POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: INCORRECT

SOURCES: Daily Trust, Channels TV

CLAIM 4: 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.

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
POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: CORRECT

SOURCES: The Cable Index, INEC

CLAIM 5: An X user @TaofeekBabalol4 Posted an image of collated results from 16 LGAs 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 votes is 56,669.

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.

POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: INCORRECT

SOURCES: ICIR, The Cable and The Punch

CLAIM 6: 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.

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.

POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: INCORRECT

SOURCES: Punch Newspaper and ICIR

CLAIM 7: 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.

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.

POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: INCORRECT

SOURCES: OSINT, Google, and YouTube. 

CLAIM 8: 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.

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.”

POST EDO ELECTION FACT-CHECKS: Edo 2024 Governorship Election 

VERDICT: MISLEADING

SOURCE: Channels TV

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