Nigeria’s electoral body has denied allegations of result manipulation in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) elections, calling social media reports of inflated vote counts “misleading.”The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) issued a statement on Tuesday addressing claims involving a polling unit at the Kuroko Health Centre in the Kwali Area Council.
Reports circulating online suggested the governing APC party had been credited with 1,219 votes at the station—a figure nearly four times the total number of registered voters (345) and significantly higher than the 213 people who actually turned up to vote.
A clerical error
The commission’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Aminu Idris, clarified that the confusion stemmed from a manual correction made by a presiding officer on the official result sheet. According to INEC, the officer originally recorded 122 votes for the party but, upon a recount, realised the figure was 121. While attempting to correct the document, the handwritten alterations were reportedly misread by observers as “1,219.””The official result recorded and uploaded… shows that the political party in question scored 121 votes, not 1,219 as alleged,” Mr. Idris stated. He added that party agents present at the scene had signed off on the correct figure of 121.
Technological safeguards
To reassure an international and domestic audience wary of electoral fraud, INEC highlighted the digital “tripwires” built into Nigeria’s voting system:
The BVAS Device: This handheld scanner records accreditation. INEC says the system is programmed to automatically reject any data entry where the number of votes exceeds the number of people accredited to vote.
IReV Portal: An online archive where photos of result sheets are uploaded directly from polling units for public viewing.
Mathematical Validation: Officials insist that an entry of 1,219 would have been “technically impossible” to finalise within the current digital architecture.
Context of distrust
The clarification comes at a sensitive time for Nigerian democracy. The FCT elections, held on February 21, have already seen opposition groups and the “Obidient Movement” reject several results, citing intimidation and lack of transparency. While INEC maintains the elections were conducted in “substantial compliance” with the law, the incident at the Kuroko Health Centre underscores the intense scrutiny facing the commission as it integrates more technology into the heart of the democratic process.
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