The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has admonished Nigerians to resist the temptation of posting or sharing unverified election results on social media.
Mohammed gave the admonition on Saturday in his home town, Oro, near Ilorin after casting his vote in the Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister voted at Polling Unit 006, Oro Ward 2 in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara.
Mohammed who arrived at the polling unit at about 10.05 a.m. joined the queue, waited till about 11.15 a.m. (about one hour thirty minutes) before exercising his franchise.
Speaking with newsmen after voting, the minister appealed to media houses to act responsibly in publishing or broadcasting election results.
“You don’t have to post election results without checking the source and the best way and most authentic is to hear from INEC.
“The media houses should abide by the National Broadcasting Commission’s regulations regarding the announcement of election results,”he said.
“What we have noticed in the past 20 years is that election violence does not start during voting but it is at the point of collation or announcement of results that violence starts.
“False news is a fuel of this kind of violence because if you post false results from a particular unit and it is at variance with the authentic result by INEC, that would lead to violence,’’ he said.
