By Ameh Sunday Enyo-ojo
Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, has maintained that journalists can publish election results announced at polling units ahead of the 2027 general elections, stressing that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) retains the exclusive authority to formally declare winners.
Agbakoba made the remarks during an appearance on Arise Television’s The Morning Show on Wednesday, arguing that reporting results already announced by presiding officers is different from declaring the final outcome of an election.
He cited a 1984 court judgment involving the Nigeria Union of Journalists and the then Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), which he said affirmed journalists’ right to publish election results.
“If I’m standing at the polling unit, and the presiding officer reads the results. He has read it. I can broadcast it,” he said.
Agbakoba also predicted that political parties would deploy artificial intelligence tools to retrieve and process figures uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2027 elections.
However, he warned that speed must not come at the expense of accuracy, insisting that results should be authenticated before publication.
He further referenced Section 124 of the Electoral Act, arguing that the provision prescribing penalties for publishing false election results underscores the importance of accurate reporting.
The legal practitioner stressed that publishing figures from polling units does not amount to declaring an election winner, a responsibility he said rests with INEC.
He also cited the 1993 presidential election, arguing that publicly available results helped inform projections about the outcome despite the absence of a final official declaration.
Agbakoba maintained that journalists must verify results and clearly distinguish reported figures and projections from INEC’s formal declaration.
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