Media can project election winners using INEC’s IReV results, Agbakoba says

Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olisa Agbakoba, has said media organisations can project election winners using results uploaded to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IReV), provided the figures are properly sourced and attributed.

Agbakoba said journalists must base their projections on verifiable results from the electoral process rather than independently collated figures that cannot be traced to an authoritative source.

He spoke on Wednesday during an appearance on Arise Television, while discussing INEC’s warning against media organisations independently announcing election results.

On October 6, INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, cautioned media platforms against announcing election results, saying the Electoral Act reserves the authority to declare official results for the commission.

“Resist the declaration of privately collated results because under the Electoral Act, the authority to declare result rests exclusively with the commission,” Amupitan said.

He also urged newsrooms to establish fact-checking desks, deploy digital forensic tools and verify election-related information with INEC before publication.

Responding to the warning, Agbakoba said media organisations were free to project election outcomes but must explain the source of their figures.

“You cannot say, ‘I’m projecting Agbakoba as a winner’ without attributing. There must be attribution,” he said.

The senior lawyer cited international media organisations, including CNN, which project election winners based on available results and explain the basis for their assessments.

“If you watch international media… when CNN projected Obama, CNN went to the (magic) board. ‘We project Obama as the winner based on the outcomes,’” he said.