CONFIRMED: INEC website shows how Buhari benefitted from manual voting in 2015

Figures obtained from the website of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have confirmed the extent of manual voting in the 2015 presidential election.

According to a report on the commission’s website, the All Progressives Congress (APC) got most of the votes cast without bio-metric verification during the election.

The report confirms an earlier analysis by TheCable on the voting statistics.

According to the report, 13,536,311 votes were cast manually during the 2015 presidential poll, representing 42.6 percent of the 31,746,490 accredited voters.

Of that number, the INEC report showed 10,184,720 votes representing 75 percent of the total votes cast were from states won by Muhammadu Buhari, then presidential candidate of the APC, while 3,351,591 votes representing 25 percent came from states won by Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The report also showed that 10 states mostly affected by manual voting include Kebbi, Zamfara, Niger, Bauchi, Plateau, Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto and Kano: the APC won in nine of the states.

CONTROVERSIES, SHOCK

The initial story published by TheCable regarding the issue was received with both shock and controversy.

While some doubted the authenticity of the report and argued it was fabricated, others expressed disbelief, especially considering the lingering controversy on the use of card  readers.

Tolu Ogunlesi, a presidential aide, had said the data as reported appears to have been fabricated while Ayo Obe, a legal practitioner, said she learnt the data did not come from INEC.

The data that @DeepDiveNG used to ‘generate’ that ‘Report’ appears to have been fabricated. But all sorts of people have been gleefully quoting it, including @I_Am_Ilemona on @ChannelsTV.

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I would like to know: Who’s behind @DeepDiveNG? Didn’t see any names/faces on their website https://t.co/WAlcuJGxDw

— Tolu Ogunlesi, MON (@toluogunlesi) December 13, 2018

Things I learnt while at The Electoral Institute yesterday:
1. That report about @MBuhari getting 75% of his votes in 2015 from areas where card readers were not used did not come from @inecnigeria or its data.
2. INEC will use #PVC #CardReaders in all the 2019 elections.

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— Ayo Obe (@naijama) December 13, 2018

.@thecableng please next time conduct your own investigation or verify before you publish.
You could have easily contacted @inecnigeria for verification.
Especially info from a website registered in 2018. Please don't be a victim of #FakeNews victim of PDP #AtikuDubaiStrategy pic.twitter.com/VMheuh9tAC

— Káyọ̀dé Ògúndámisí 🇳🇬 (@ogundamisi) December 14, 2018

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But data from the commission has now laid all that to rest.

When contacted by TheCable on Friday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, declined to comment.