False: A video shows Nigerians protesting at INEC's National Collation Centre in Abuja following the 2023 election.

By: Sam Doak
March 2 2023

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Context

The Nigerian general election took place on February 25, 2023. According to official results, the All Progressives Congress' presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, won the race with 37 percent of the vote. His rivals in the People's Democratic Party and Labour Party received 29 percent and 25 percent of votes, respectively. Tinubu was presented with his winner's certificate in a ceremony in the capital city of Abuja on March 1. 

The results of the general election have not been universally accepted. On February 27, representatives of the People's Democratic Party and Labour Party walked out as results were tallied at the Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) National Collation Centre in Abuja. This was followed by protests outside the centre, with opposition groups claiming irregularities in the official results. 

Against this backdrop, a video has circulated online that purportedly shows protestors outside INEC's National Collation Centre on February 27. One Twitter user describes the scene as a "mass protest seen today at Inec Abuja." The video consists of grainy footage showing a large crowd chanting in an open courtyard. 

In Fact

This video does not show a protest in Abuja following the elections, as claimed. To determine where the footage originated, Logically used the verification tool InVID to perform a reverse image search. This revealed that numerous social media users uploaded it on February 25, the day of the general elections.

The captions included with earlier instances of this video make it clear that it was taken in Warri South, a local government area in Delta State. No further context was available in the captions or comments attached. To determine the exact location of the video, Logically reviewed publicly available images of the polling sites in Warri South on Google Street View. Due to the presence of a distinctive blue building visible in the background, it was possible to determine that it was taken at Egua Gbemi Primary School in the neighborhood of Ubeji.

Local news reports make true context of this footage clear. On February 25, election officials announced that voting in Warri South could not proceed as planned due to issues with Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems. While voters were told the election would be held the following day, a significant number of people protested against what was viewed by some as an attempt to disenfranchise Warri South residents. 

The Verdict

This footage does not show a protest in Abuja concerning the results of the Nigerian general election. Instead, it shows residents of Warri South demanding to be allowed to vote on election day. This claim has therefore been marked as false.