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FACT CHECK: Did INEC project Peter Obi to win the presidential election based on its poll?

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CLAIM: It was claimed on a facebook page that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) projected the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi to emerge victorious in next month’s presidential election, based on a poll. The poster quoted the Chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu to have purportedly said this.

VERDICT: False.

FULL TEXT

According to the facebook post, Prof Yakubu purportedly made the projection in London. The post also alluded to projections by two foreign media/research organizations, Bloomberg and The Economist.

The facebook post read:

“We have projected Peter Obi as the winner of the 2023 election because on our official INEC PRESIDENTIAL POLL he has won.

READ ALSO:FACT CHECK: Did Wike promise Obi votes in Rivers State?

The Economist and Bloomberg have projected him as the winner too’ – INEC chairman revealed in London”

VERIFICATION

The only recent public appearance of the INEC boss In London was at Chatham House, on Wednesday, where he was invited to speak on the commission’s preparation ahead of the general elections. Yakubu delivered a 30-min speech then proceeded to answer questions from the audience and virtual participants.

Nowhere in his over one-hour presentation did he make any projection as to who the polls would favour.

Also, INEC never conducted a poll to determine the choice of the people amongst the Presidential candidates

Concerning the purported projections by the other two foreign media, we found that only Bloomberg projected Obi as the possible winner. The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), an arm of The Economist, in its report published in September, 2022, predicted that the candidate of the All Progressive Congress, Bola Tinubu would win the presidential election.

CONCLUSION

The claim that INEC made a projection of the possible winner of the presidential election is not true. The commission also did not conduct a pre-election poll.

By Olúwatóbi Ọdé̩yínká

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