Nigeria Decides 2023: Yiaga Faults Election Results, Says They Are Inconsistent

Yiaga Africa, one of the Civil Society Organizations that worked with the Independent National Electoral Commission in the 2023 election has faulted the presidential results which emanated from Imo and Rivers state.

In a statement released on Wednesday, March 1, the organisation which deployed observers to states across the country, said the results announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were manipulated.

The statement read;

“The state-level presidential results for Imo and Rivers are inconsistent with the Yiaga Africa WTV projections for both states.

“For Rivers, INEC announced 231,591 votes for APC or 44.2 percent; 175,071 for LP or 33.4 percent; and 88,468 for PDP or 16.9 percent.

“This is in sharp contrast to the Yiaga Africa WTV estimates for Rivers which are: APC 21.7 percent ±5.0 percent; for LP 50.8 percent ±10.6 percent; and PDP 22.2 percent ±6.5 percent.

“For Imo, INEC announced 66,406 for APC or 14.2 percent; 360,495 for LP or 77.1 percent; and 30,234; for PDP or 6.5 percent.

“Again, this is at variance with the Yiaga Africa WTV estimates for Imo which are: APC 5.1 ±2.3 percent; LP 88.1 percent ±3.8 percent; and PDP 5.7 percent ±2.3 percent.

“Based on reports from 97 percent (1,453 of 1507) of sampled polling units, Yiaga Africa’s statistical analysis shows that the All Progressives Congress (APC) should receive between 34.4 percent and 37.4 percent of the vote, Labour Party (LP) should receive between 24.2 percent and 28.4 percent of the votes, the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) should receive between 4.6 percent and 6.4 percent of the vote, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should receive between 28.3 percent and 31.1 percent of the vote, while no other political party should receive more than 0.3% of the vote.”

Yiaga Africa which asked INEC to clarify the inconsistencies in some of the results, especially from Rivers and Imo states, also called for extension of voting hours to 5 pm in subsequent elections as well as sustain the uploads of polling unit results form EC 8A on its IReV portal.