According to results posted on the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), Peter Obi, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), won the presidential election on February 25 in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, South-south Nigeria.
Obi’s vote total in the area suggests that he, not Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the Rivers presidential election, contrary to INEC’s pronouncement.
According to INEC, Mr Tinubu received 80, 239 votes in the Obio/Akpor government area, while Mr Obi received 3,829 votes.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) received 368 votes while Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party received 161.
Mr Tinubu was later declared winner of the election. Atiku came second while Mr Obi came third.
But PREMIUM TIMES’ review of the results from various polling units of the 17 wards in Obio/Akpor LGA as uploaded on IReV revealed a sharp contrast with the result declared by INEC.
However, winning Rivers does not mean Mr Obi would have won the presidential election. He still would have falling far short of winning the highest number of votes nationally and scoring 25 percent of votes in at least 24 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory, as stipulated by the Nigerian constitution.
Given that Tinubu was declared winner in Obio/Akpor, this newspaper’s review focused on the results of the votes scored by the APC and LP in the area.
By PREMIUM TIMES tally, the APC got 17, 158 votes while the LP amassed 73,311 votes.
Obio/Akpor Local Government Area has 1,211 polling units across its 17 wards.
Results from about 95 polling units, representing about 5.87 per cent, were yet to be uploaded within the period under review.
There were no results in some polling units either because the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System malfunctioned or people did not come out to cast their votes, as observed at Ake Hostel UNIPORT Polling Unit in Choba Ward.
This newspaper computed the available and readable results from the 1,116 polling units uploaded so far on the IReV within the period of the review.
In some polling units in Obio/Akpor, PREMIUM TIMES found that some results were altered in favour of the APC, with the original scores mutilated.
At the column meant for recording the scores in words, there were evidence of adjustments to suit the changed figures.
In Rumuokoro Ward, it was noticed that in 34 polling units, results earlier written for the LP were erased and the figures swapped with that of the APC.
PREMIUM TIMES, nevertheless, tallied the figures as published by INEC, despite the obvious evidence of adjustments and mutilations. In other words, the figures were tallied as they appeared on result sheets, even when there was evidence that such figures were tampered with.