IN SHORT: Contrary to online claims in Nigeria, an election observer report by the European bloc of countries highlights only one incident and does not say which political party suffered the most violence during the February 2023 elections.
“BREAKING: The Labour Party suffered the most Violence and Attacks in Nigerian States during the 2023 Presidential and Governorship election.”
That’s the claim in a post shared on Facebook in Nigeria. It also says of the seven people killed during elections, “six of them were Labour Party members”.
As its evidence, the 10 July 2023 post cites a “European Union EOM” report.
EOM refers to the bloc’s election observation mission.
The claim has been posted on other pages on Facebook, including one that belongs to a news website.
The Labour Party challenging the result of the 25 February election in court. If the claim being made on Facebook is true, this could possibly be used to bolster their arguments.
But did the European Union's election observers make this claim in their report? We checked.
Report: Labour suffered most violence in one state, not all
A copy of the mission's report is available on the website of the EU's diplomatic service.
In the report's section on campaign violence, the mission said it recorded 101 cases, resulting in 74 deaths.
However, it did not mention which political party had suffered the most from these incidents.
The mission highlighted an incident involving the three major political parties – the All Progressives Congress, Peoples Democratic Party and Labour.
The incident, it said, took place in Enugu, a state in southeastern Nigeria.
“On 23 February, two days before election day, coordinated violent attacks against all three leading parties took place in Enugu-East senatorial district resulting in seven persons killed, six of them [Labour Party] members, including the LP senatorial candidate,” the report read.
So the EU reported that the Labour Party suffered the most violence in an incident that occurred in one senatorial district, not all states.
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