FACT-CHECK: Melaye wrong, APC, PDP votes at Buhari’s PU in 2019, 2023 not same

Dino Melaye, spokesman for the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Council, on Tuesday, claimed that the results of the PDP and the All Progressives Congress in President Muhammadu Buhari’s polling unit in the 2019 and 2023 presidential elections were the same.

Melaye said, “The result of President Buhari’s Polling Unit in 2019; APC – 523, PDP – three. In 2023, the election that was done on Saturday (February 25), the result of President Buhari Polling Unit; APC – 523, PDP – three. Nobody died, nobody became 18 years, no new registered voters, that is just one out of thousands of vote allocations that was done.”

Melaye said this at a joint press conference held by the PDP, the Labour Party and the African Democratic Congress in Abuja where the three opposition parties demanded a fresh election, and asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, to step aside.

However, a check by The PUNCH shows that Melaye’s claim that the APC polled 523 and the PDP polled three votes on Saturday is not true.

While in 2019, President Buhari under the APC won his polling unit, PU003 at Sarkin Yara ward A, in Daura, Katsina, by scoring 523 votes and the presidential candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar, got only three votes, this is not the same in 2023.

The APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, won Saturday’s presidential election in the Baru 003, Baba Tone, Sarki Yara “A” Ward of Buhari by polling 215 votes to beat other major contestants, namely Atiku of the PDP who polled 51 votes, and Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party who polled 37 votes, according to PUNCH