Our report did not declare Oyetola winner of Osun poll, Yiaga Africa clarifies

Yiaga Africa has distanced itself from news reports alluding that its recently launched Election Result Analysis Dashboard (ERAD) report for the Ekiti and Osun governorship election “confirms” that the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Gboyega Oyetola, won the election in Osun State.

Yiaga in a statement yesterday in Abuja signed by its Executive Director, Samson Itodo, stated that the ERAD report did not in any way suggest the winner or loser of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections.

The statement noted that instead, 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 made recommendations for improving the process ahead of the 2023 elections.

The statement read in part: “Yiaga Africa deployed a comprehensive election observation methodology in Ekiti and Osun governorship elections.

“First, Yiaga Africa observed the pre-election period and deployed citizen observers on election day using the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) to provide timely information on the process and verify election results.

“The PVT election observation methodology is a globally recognised election observation tool used by citizen groups. It is one of the most accurate and reliable election observation methodology that can independently verify the accuracy of election day results released by the 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 27, 2022, which clearly revealed that the results announced by the INEC in the Ekiti and Osun election were consistent with votes cast at the polling units.”

“Had the official results been changed at the ward, LGA or state collation centres, the official results would not have fallen within the Yiaga Africa PVT estimated ranges. Thus, we strongly stand by our PVT findings, which have in no way contradicted the ERAD report.

“Secondly, in partnership with Channels Television, Yiaga Africa deployed the ERAD to promote transparency in the transmission of election results through the download and analysis of polling units’ results uploaded on the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV).

“The ERAD report launched on September 9, 2022, identified the successes, critical lessons learnt and gaps during the upload of election results on the INEC Results Viewing (IReV) Portal for the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections.
“Some of the gaps include the upload of incorrect election forms, blurry images and poorly captured photographs of result sheets, and wrongly imputed and omitted data on results sheets amongst others. Thus, the ERAD did not process 87 (2.3 per cent) out of the 3,763 polling unit results in the state. In the report, Yiaga Africa offered recommendations for INEC to improve its use of the IREV portal in future elections.

“Following an analysis of the pre-election data released by INEC on collected PVCs per polling unit in Osun State, Yiaga Africa identified inconsistencies in the data of collected PVCs in 0.7 per cent (30 Polling Units) in 12 local governments in Osun State.

“The total number of collected PVCs was slightly higher than the number of registered voters in those polling units. Specifically, Yiaga Africa spotted a difference of 1,882 PVCs in the 30 polling units.

“While this discrepancy in the pre-election data for PVC collection is inconsequential to the outcome of the elections, Yiaga Africa calls on INEC to clarify the reasons behind the discrepancies observed between the number of PVCs collected and the number of registered voters.”