FACT CHECK: Did INEC record same results for Bauchi and Gombe States?

The ongoing general elections have continued to throw up controversial scenarios with the latest being insinuations that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was engaging in copying and pasting of results.

Many Nigerians who trooped out to cast their votes in the presidential and national assembly elections of Saturday, February 25, 2023, are still waiting for official announcement of results in many states, 72 hours after the exercise.

It's important to state that presidential election results are being collated at polling unit, ward, Local Government, and state levels before the final tally is transferred to Abuja for adoption by INEC.

In the midst of this, a claim broke out on social media early on Tuesday alleging that the commission recorded same results for Gombe and Bauchi States in the presidential election.

While this in itself doesn't constitute any electoral foul play, assuming that's the case, the rarity and practical impossibility of three different political parties recording the same number of votes in two different states made it all too suspicious.

During a press conference held by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, February 28, 2023, National Chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, authoritatively quoted the viral figures to buttress his point that INEC has compromised the election.

However, according to investigations by Pulse, we discovered that the information that is making the rounds is absolutely false.

So, what actually happened?

Our findings revealed that the confusion emanated from an online platform, TheCableIndex, who mistakenly published infographics of results from Bauchi and Gombe States using figures from Gombe.

The platform has also owned up to the error and issued an apology to Nigerians for the misleading information.

In a tweet posted on its page on Tuesday afternoon, TheCableIndex expressed regrets over the development and issued an updated version of the infographics.

Below is how Nigerians voted in Gombe and Bauchi States in the presidential election;

Gombe State:

APC - 146,977

PDP - 319,123

Labour Party - 26,160

Bauchi State

APC - 316,694

PDP - 426,607

Labour Party - 27,373

Verdict

Pulse can authoritatively confirm that the viral claim that INEC announced identical figures for Bauchi and Gombe State in the presidential election is completely false.