From Abdullahi Alhassan, Kaduna
A technology initiative monitored and reviewed false and misleading information circulated online during the Osun State Governorship Election held on Saturday, August 15, 2026.
The Nest Africa AI Innovation Lab said its AI-Powered Election Information Integrity Situation Room was deployed during the election to monitor election-related claims and verify information circulating on social media.
The initiative combined artificial intelligence tools with human analysts who tracked, cross-checked and assessed election-related content against available official information.
This was contained in a statement signed by Ameerah Adamu, Project Lead, Policy, Governance and Public Innovation Associate.
According to the statement, 20 analysts and observers worked from the situation room during voting and collation, reviewing suspicious social media posts and checking them against official sources.
The team reviewed claims involving alleged result sheets, AI-generated images, impersonation and premature declarations of election results.
One of the claims reviewed was a graphic that attributed 45,456 votes to the APC candidate and presented the figure as a final result. The Lab said the graphic was unofficial and misleading.
The statement noted that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) remained the constitutionally empowered body responsible for collating and announcing election results, urging voters to rely on verified information.
Analysts also identified images showing signs of manipulation, including distorted text and details that did not correspond with photographs from polling units.
Another case involved a WhatsApp message impersonating a popular Afrobeats artist and offering a ₦100,000 election cash giveaway through a link. The Lab said the link was designed to obtain users’ bank details.
The message also encouraged recipients to forward it to others, which the Lab identified as part of the attempt to spread the fraudulent content.
The situation room also reviewed a claim that the incumbent governor had taken an early lead in 13 local government areas. According to the statement, the claim circulated while voting and collation were still ongoing and no result sheets had been made available to support it.
Adamu said the cases showed that election-related misinformation could take different forms, including false result claims, manipulated images, impersonation and financial scams.
She also stressed the need for analysts to distinguish between information that is demonstrably false and claims that are unverified or premature.
The Lab said the monitoring exercise would inform its preparations for the 2027 general elections, including efforts to train more analysts and field observers to verify election-related information.
It said the experience from the Osun election would also be used to improve its approach to identifying and assessing false and misleading content during future elections.