IN SHORT: A viral social media message accuses Nigeria’s electoral commission of rigging the recent presidential election by not recording votes for the Labour Party in the Obot Akara local government area of Akwa Ibom state. But the claim is based on old results. The complete results show that the Labour Party got 2,542 votes.
A message circulating on Twitter and Facebook accuses the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) of electoral fraud in Nigeria’s 25 February 2023 presidential election.
It claims that Inec recorded zero votes for the Labour Party in the Obot Akara local government area of Akwa Ibom state of south-south Nigeria, and the party got just 135 votes in one polling unit in the local government area.
“INEC scored LP [Labour Party] 0 votes in Obot Akara LGA of Akwa Ibom State meanwhile LP had 135 votes in just 1 polling unit in Obot Akara (Village Hall, Mbakpo Nkap in Nto Edino IV ward). INEC results for Akwa Ibom State has been massively rigged. This is the greatest rigging since 1999,” reads a tweet that has over half a million views and has been retweeted over 8,300 times.
The tweet includes a screenshot of a presidential election results update displayed while Inec was announcing results for the Obot Akara local government area. It also had a photo of the polling unit result it referred to.
The message has also been posted on Facebook here, here, here, here, here and here.
The claim adds to several claims of electoral fraud, manipulation and irregularities emanating from Nigeria’s 25 February 2023 presidential and national assembly elections.
Labour Party’s votes yet to be loaded
The election result update has 4,477 votes recorded for the All Progressives Congress (APC) and 8,029 for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the first two rows.
The votes column for Labour Party (LP) in the third row is blank. The votes column for the other parties in the rows below was also blank, an indication their votes are yet to be inputted.
In the complete presidential election result for the Obot Akara local government area, the APC and PDP got the exact number of votes recorded on the screenshot. The Labour Party got 2,542 votes.
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