River State INEC Portal Results Revealed Peter Obi, not Tinubu, won 2023 Election
According to results posted on the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), Peter Obi, a contender of the Labour Party (LP), won the 25 February presidential election in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, South-South Nigeria.
Contrary to what INEC declared, Mr. Obi’s vote total in the region suggests that he, not Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the presidential election in Rivers.
According to the INEC-released results for the Obio/Akpor council area, Mr. Tinubu received 80, 239 votes, while Mr. Obi received 3,829 votes.
According to this newspaper, Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) received 368 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party received 161.
Later, Mr. Tinubu was announced as the election’s victor. Mr. Obi came in third, followed by Atiku.
However, PREMIUM TIMES found a significant discrepancy between the results as reported by INEC and the results from the various polling units of the 17 wards in the Obio/Akpor LGA as published on IReV.
Methodology
Given that Mr. Tinubu was proclaimed the victor in Obio/Akpor, the analysis in this newspaper concentrated on the outcomes of the votes obtained by the APC and LP there.
According to our count, the LP received 73,311 votes, compared to 17,158 votes for the APC.
In its 17 wards, the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area contains 1,211 voting locations.
As of March 16, PREMIUM TIMES had the opportunity to review the IReV results from 1,116 polling places, or 94.13 percent of the results from the council area.
However, some polling stations’ findings were either blurry or poorly snapped, making them impossible to read.
95 polling places, or around 5.87 percent of the total, had results that hadn’t yet been posted during the time period under consideration.
In certain polling places, either because the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System failed or because voters abstained, as was the case at the Ake Hostel UNIPORT Polling Unit in Choba Ward, there were no results.
During the review period, this publication computed the legible and accessible results from the 1,116 polling units that have been posted to the IReV thus far.
Other Discoveries
PREMIUM TIMES discovered that some results in some polling places in Obio/Akpor had been tampered with to favor the APC and that the original scores had been altered.
For instance, the APC received a score of 17 at the Rumuorluoji Open Space II polling place in the Oro-Igwe Ward, but the number “2” was added to the result to make it “217.”
227 was recorded for the LP, but the second digit was removed and changed to read “027.”
There were indications that modifications had been made at the column designated for writing down the scores.
In the Rumuokoro Ward, it was discovered that results previously written for the LP in 34 polling stations had been wiped and replaced with those for the APC.
Despite the evident evidence of changes and mutilations, PREMIUM TIMES totaled the data as reported by INEC. In other words, the numbers were added up exactly as they appeared on the result sheets, even if there was proof that the numbers had been altered.
In several polling places, the National Assembly election results rather than the presidential election results were transmitted.
In one example, a result from the Rumuigbo Ward’s Civic Centre Hall Polling Unit revealed that a House of Representatives election result had been published in place of a presidential election result.
Outcomes of Degema
Figures from the Degema Local Government Area that were uploaded on the IReV were also totaled by PREMIUM TIMES, and those figures validated Mr. Tinubu’s victory in the council district, even though the score was a little lower than the INEC-announced result.
However, due to illegibility issues or the fact that they had not yet been uploaded during the review time, this newspaper was unable to tally the results from some polling places in the council area.
Obi took the lead at first.
By the time INEC declared the outcome of the presidential election in 21 of the state’s 23 local government areas, Mr. Obi had more than 23,000 more votes than Mr. Tinubu.
At the time, Mr. Tinubu received 148,979 votes, while the LP candidate received 169,414 votes.
At the time, Mr. Obi received 62,451 votes from the Port Harcourt City Local Government Area. Mr. Atiku received 7,203 votes, and Mr. Tinubu received 5,562 votes. Kwankwaso received a 301.
Results from the two remaining local governments, Obio/Akpor, where the State Governor, Nyesom Wike, is from, and Degema, were still anticipated at that time.
Upon receipt of the Obio/Akpor results and the announcement by INEC that Mr. Tinubu had received 80, 239 votes compared to Mr. Obi’s 3,829, the APC candidate assumed the lead and was ultimately crowned the victor of the presidential election in Rivers State.
In Obio/Akpor, Atiku received 368 votes, compared to Mr. Kwankwaso’s 161 votes.
Mr. Obi received 2,212 votes, while Mr. Tinubu received 2,375 votes in the Degema Local Government Area. Mr. Kwankwaso received 44 votes, while Atiku received 3,108.
According to INEC, Mr. Tinubu received 231,591 votes in Rivers State compared to Mr. Obi’s 175,071 votes.
Mr. Kwankwaso received 1,322 votes, compared to Atiku’s 88,468.
The collation officer for the presidential election in Rivers temporarily suspended the process after receiving reported threats against his life from some party members.
There have been allegations of voter intimidation and assault in the state.
Background
Following disputes over whether the north or the south should produce President Muhammadu Buhari’s successor, Governor Wike, a member of the PDP, urged other PDP governors to rebel against the national leadership of the party and its presidential candidate, Atiku.
The Rivers governor ran for president in the PDP but was unsuccessful.
After that, he endorsed Mr. Tinubu of the APC for president, arguing that since Mr. Buhari is from the north, Nigeria’s next leader ought to be from the south for the purpose of equity.
Like Mr. Tinubu, Mr. Obi is a native of southern Nigeria.
