Osun APC Accuses Accord of Fake AI-Generated Results
The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress has accused the Accord Party of feeding the public with fake, artificially generated election results, warning that the practice could plunge the state into an avoidable crisis.
In a statement issued on Saturday night, the opposition party said it was worrisome that Accord members had allegedly descended into criminality by illegally usurping the role of the Independent National Electoral Commission through the posting of unverified results from various wards on social media. The APC called on the police to investigate the matter and make examples of those publishing what it described as falsehoods.
The party’s Director of Media and Information, Kola Olabisi, said INEC remained the only body constitutionally empowered to conduct and declare election results, adding that results from other sources should be regarded as illegal. According to the APC, the publication of false election results by Accord members and supporters was a prearranged and coordinated exercise by the party’s handlers to cause confusion.
The party further said Governor Ademola Adeleke should be held responsible should there be a post-election crisis, claiming that findings showed some disgruntled Accord politicians had illegally enlisted Artificial Intelligence to churn out fake results. The APC urged its members and supporters to remain peaceful and refuse to be distracted by what it described as the illegal activities of political bandits.
The allegations came as INEC continued collating results from Saturday’s governorship election across the state’s 30 local government areas. The electoral umpire had uploaded over 80 per cent of polling unit results to its Result Viewing Portal as of Saturday night.
Provisional figures showed Governor Ademola Adeleke of the Accord Party maintaining an early lead over his closest challenger, the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji. Checks on the Nigeria Elections Intelligence System indicated that results from 303 of the state’s 332 wards had been collated, with Adeleke polling 177,572 votes, representing 50.5 per cent of the votes counted, while Oyebamiji had 158,588 votes, representing 45.1 per cent. The African Democratic Congress candidate, Najeem Salaam, was in third position with 5,917 votes as of the time of the report.
INEC had earlier announced results from the first eight local government areas, where Adeleke won in seven, with Oyebamiji taking one. In subsequent announcements, the Accord Party maintained its advantage in the majority of local government areas declared.
According to INEC figures, 1,906,390 out of 2,339,233 registered voters collected their Permanent Voter Cards and were eligible to vote. The collation showed that 361,500 voters were accredited, representing a voter turnout of 42.8 per cent.
However, the electoral process was significantly marred by widespread reports of violence, vote-buying and technical failures involving the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. The European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria Election Observation Hub reported 38 security incidents and 323 cases of electoral offences in the 726 polling units it monitored as of noon on Saturday. The security incidents included 25 cases of thuggery, 12 attacks on electoral officials and nine cases of voter intimidation by security personnel. The electoral offences included 103 cases of vote trading, 85 cases of exposure of ballot papers, 31 cases of obstruction of voters, and 28 cases of inducement of polling and security officials.
The EU observer hub also reported that 58 BVAS devices malfunctioned in the polling units observed, of which 41 were subsequently fixed, allowing accreditation to resume. The Centre for Democracy and Development confirmed operational issues with the BVAS, including slow processing and difficulties with biometric verification, in multiple local government areas including Irepodun, Ejigbo, Obokun, Osogbo, Olorunda, Ola Oluwa, Ede North and Ede South.
The Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development also confirmed BVAS failures at polling units in Egbedore, Ife Central, Ilesa West, Ifedayo, Ifelodun, Oriade and Ilesa East local government areas. The Deputy Governor of Osun State, Kola Adewusi, lamented that BVAS malfunctioned at his polling unit in Ile-Ife, slowing down the voting process and preventing many voters from casting their ballots. A former Minister of State for Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, also complained about the slow performance of the device at his polling unit in Ayedaade Local Government Area.
Violent incidents were recorded in several parts of the state. At Salvation Army High School in Osogbo, which served as the Ward 5 collation centre, gunmen trailing a bus carrying INEC ad hoc staff shot into a crowd, leaving a man wounded in the chest. In Ikirun, Ifelodun Local Government Area, gunshots were fired following a disagreement among party agents during a recount of votes, prompting the police to fire tear gas canisters. The Centre for Democracy and Development reported that suspected thugs disrupted voting at Ejigbo Ward 4, Polling Unit 13, where the ADC governorship candidate, Najeem Salaam, cast his vote.
The CDD, in its preliminary assessment, said INEC’s deployment was mostly successful, with 89.1 per cent of observed polling units recording officials arriving before 8:30 a.m.. However, the centre raised concerns about vote-buying, with observers noting solicitation of votes around polling stations in Ilesa East and Ola Oluwa local government areas. The centre also reported allegations of voters being tear-gassed in Modakeke and Obokun, which it said should be independently investigated.
The CLEEN Foundation, an election security observer group, said the election recorded a largely calm security environment in the opening hours of voting, but technical failures, vote-buying and isolated violence threatened to disrupt the process. The foundation said 86 per cent of monitored polling units had three or more security officials deployed, and the overall conduct of security officials was rated good or very good in 94 per cent of monitored locations. However, it reported network connectivity problems, difficulties with facial recognition and fingerprint authentication in several polling units.
The Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room also raised concerns over delays, BVAS challenges, vote buying and isolated disruptions during the election. The Kimpact Development Initiative recorded delays in the arrival of electoral officials, BVAS failures, vote-trading incidents and cases of violence in parts of the state.
The APC, ADC and Accord Party exchanged accusations over the violence and irregularities recorded during the election. The ADC rejected the election, describing it as a sham, and called on INEC to suspend further collation and cancel results from all affected areas. Governor Adeleke decried what he called “sheer abuse of law enforcement” to intimidate supporters, while the APC accused Accord of sponsoring thugs to hijack ballot boxes.
The EU observer hub urged political parties and candidates to await the official outcome of the election and channel any grievances strictly through lawful and judicial means. As of Sunday morning, collation of results was ongoing across the state’s 30 local government areas, with INEC expected to continue uploading outstanding results before the returning officer formally declares the winner of the Osun governorship election.