Oluwaseye Ogunsanya
Claim
A report by Peoples Gazette, an online news platform claimed that the APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu said “electoral process cannot be perfect without manipulation in some areas.”
Verdict
Misleading! No other credible news platform reported the news.
Full Text
An online news platform Peoples Gazette in its news headline, quoted APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu as saying that “electoral process cannot be perfect without manipulation in some areas”
Although Peoples Gazette’s website was not accessible, we found out that other news websites and blogs already published it.
According to gistlover.com, Tinubu made the statement while speaking to journalists on Saturday at his home in Lagos, insisting that he would emerge president from Saturday’s election because he had worked harder than other candidates.
On whether he would accept the result of Saturday’s election if he loses, he said: “A democrat, a true democrat, must accept the result of free and fair elections. As a democrat, you must have faith in the system. Once you have faith in the system, it is not a problem to accept the result of free and fair elections
Speaking further, the APC presidential candidate said “perception is one thing. On rare occasions that you have skirmishes and lack of confidence, it is created by the politicians. Not the electoral process. In the electoral process, we cannot see 100 percent perfection. People have to tolerate that. Equally, when you are talking of manipulation in some areas, you have to evaluate what is material. Materiality comes to play. How many compared to the total turnout or total who voted? You’ve got to accept the result of a fairly responsible voter’s decision,” he added.
The presidential election took place yesterday across the country as counting is still ongoing. While collation is currently ongoing in different states of the federation, the national collation center will resume by 11am tomorrow.
Verification
FactCheckElections did a Google search to find out if Tinubu actually made such a statement. We found out that no other credible news platform has published the report.
A further check also revealed that the APC presidential candidate spoke to reporters immediately after voting on Saturday at his polling unit at Alausa, Ikeja. He expressed optimism that he would win the poll.
He said “democracy is here to stay” in Nigeria and that he is “too confident of victory.” Speaking on the voting process, he said it is “going smoothly” and “going well.” On the turnout of voters, he said: “This is expected, we need a good turnout, and that is the adoption, and the commitment to democracy and the democratic process must take place.” When he was asked how certain of victory he was, Tinubu said: “I’m too certain.”
Conclusion
The claim is misleading. There is no evidence that the APC Candidate made such a statement.