PORT HARCOURT — New evidence from a forensic review of the 2023 presidential election results in Rivers State has confirmed massive discrepancies between the numbers announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the actual votes cast at polling units. The data suggests a systematic manipulation of figures that saw Peter Obi’s landslide victory in the state overturned in favor of Bola Tinubu.
The investigation, which relied on the same Form EC8A tally sheets uploaded to INEC’s own IReV portal, reveals that the final results were mysteriously “adjusted” during the collation process. In a move that observers have described as a blatant subversion of the people’s will, thousands of votes were allegedly subtracted from the Labour Party candidate while the APC candidate’s numbers were artificially inflated.
The most startling evidence comes from Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, the political stronghold of the former governor. While the official INEC declaration credited Bola Tinubu with over 80,000 votes and Peter Obi with a mere 3,829, the actual tally sheets from the polling units showed the reverse: Peter Obi polled over 74,000 votes, while Tinubu trailed far behind with approximately 17,000.
This findings echo a recent investigative report by the BBC, which conducted a granular search of over 6,000 polling units in Rivers State. That report concluded that Peter Obi won the state by a massive margin, but his votes were cut by at least half in the official state collation. This was further corroborated by former Minister Rotimi Amaechi, who recently admitted that Obi “convincingly won” Rivers State, regardless of the official announcement.
Despite the digital evidence available on the IReV portal, INEC proceeded to declare Tinubu the winner of the state with 231,591 votes against Obi’s 175,071. For many Nigerians, these revelations confirm long-held suspicions that the 2023 election in Rivers was not a contest of ballots, but a victory of “strategic coordination” and result-writing.
As the 2027 election cycle approaches, these documented anomalies remain a central point of tension, highlighting a broken electoral system where the figures on the portal rarely match the figures on the final certificate.
