YIAGA Africa berates Osun gov, says its report never declared Oyetola winner of guber election
An election observer group in Nigeria, Yiaga Africa has berated Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State over ‘false’ claim that the NGO’s Election Result Analysis Dashboard (ERAD) report for the Saturday, July 16 governorship election in Osun, indicated that the governor, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), won the election.
Yiaga Africa protested an article, titled: “Osun Guber and Yiaga’s Revelations”, by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Ismail Omipidan, published in The Nigerian Tribune, arguing that it was flawed by wrong claim that Yiaga Africa’s ERAD report showed that there was overvoting in 12 local government areas during the governorship election, as well as other forms of inconsistencies that were spotted during their observation of the election.
Yiaga Africa in a statement in Abuja, declared that the ERAD report did not indicate Oyetola’s victory, rather it only identified some shortcomings of INEC in uploading results and suggested ways of improvement before the 2023 general elections. Yiaga Africa, therefore, dismissed the claim by the CPS to Governor Oyetola, declaring that the NGO’s ERAD report did not disagree with the election result.
According to Yiaga Africa, “The ERAD report highlighted certain shortcomings with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) upload of results to the INEC Results Viewing (IREV) Portal and recommendations for improving the process ahead of the 2023 elections.”
Yiaga Africa pointed out that its Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) for the Osun gubernatorial polls differs from the ERAD reports. The group said that the PVT provides timely information on the process and verify election results. It emphasized that the PVT election observation methodology is a globally recognized election observation tool used by citizen groups.
Yiaga Africa declared: “It is one of the most accurate and reliable election observation methodologies that can independently verify the accuracy of election day results released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Yiaga Africa has deployed the PVT in 12 elections in Nigeria including the 2019 Presidential election.
“The ERAD report corroborates the PVT findings contained in the report on the Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections released on August 27th, 2022 which clearly revealed that the results announced by INEC in the Ekiti and Osun election were CONSISTENT with votes cast at the polling units. Read also 2023: INEC to engage Abdulsalami, Bishop Kukah? Fresh details emerge “Had the official results been changed at the Ward, LGA, or State collation centers, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa PVT estimated ranges.”
It maintained that its PVT findings in no way contradicted the ERAD report, and never declared Oyetola winner.
