Misinformation Plagues Anambra’s 2025 Governorship Election

The recently concluded Anambra governorship election on November 8, 2025, became a battleground not just for political candidates, but for truth itself. As residents cast their ballots to select their next governor, a wave of misinformation threatened to undermine the electoral process, with social media platforms flooded with unverified claims designed to confuse voters.

Over a three-day period, the Nigerian Fact-Checkers’ Coalition (NFC) investigated 28 viral claims circulating around the election. Their findings revealed a troubling landscape: only six claims were verified as correct, while 14 were completely false, seven were misleading, and one remained unproven.

Pre-election misinformation attempted to confuse voters about basic procedures and political realities. One widely-shared post falsely claimed that Governor Chukwuma Soludo had declared a holiday specifically for teachers to serve as delegates. While the state did declare a holiday, it applied to all workers, not just teachers.

Another user on X (formerly Twitter) incorrectly stated that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had not fielded a candidate in the gubernatorial race. This was easily disproven, as INEC’s official list clearly showed PDP candidate Jude Ezewanfor as a participant who had also appeared in multiple media interviews.

Even basic voting instructions became targets for manipulation. A Facebook post urged voters to specifically use their index finger to mark ballots, contradicting INEC’s guidance that any finger could be used provided the mark was clear. Another claim erroneously stated that voter turnout had historically never exceeded 22 percent, when official records showed participation rates closer to 46-47 percent.

The misinformation campaign intensified during and after voting, with misleading visuals playing a prominent role. A video purportedly showing women being assisted to thumbprint ballots was actually from 2023 and unrelated to the Anambra election. Claims about local government chairpersons being caught with large sums of cash or intimidating voters with armed men were similarly debunked.

False accusations of violence were also prevalent. One X user posted a photograph allegedly showing a man injured in election-related violence, but fact-checkers traced the image to a 2018 incident involving APGA party members in Dunukofia Local Government Area.

As vote counting began, premature and inaccurate results flooded social media. Multiple users declared Governor Soludo the winner with varying vote percentages before official announcements. One account falsely claimed Soludo had won with 361,893 votes, while the actual figure confirmed by INEC was 422,664.

Not all viral content was false, however. NFC verified claims about “massive vote-buying” by APGA and APC after reporters from Premium Times and The ICIR witnessed voters being induced with cash across multiple polling units. Another accurate report highlighted that in Peter Obi’s home community, the APC candidate defeated the Labour Party candidate at a specific polling unit.

Technical challenges with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) also genuinely delayed voting in some areas, as confirmed by multiple credible media outlets.

To combat the spread of misinformation, the NFC produced seven media and information literacy articles with guidance for voters on detecting fake election results, identifying misleading videos, and understanding the vote counting process from polling units to state collation.

The proliferation of misinformation during the Anambra election highlights the growing challenge of maintaining electoral integrity in the digital age, where false information can spread faster than facts. As election cycles continue to be targeted by misinformation campaigns, the work of fact-checking coalitions becomes increasingly vital to preserving democratic processes and ensuring voters can make informed decisions based on accurate information.