Former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Olisa Agbakoba, has maintained that journalists have the legal right to publish election results, stressing that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has the exclusive authority to formally declare election outcomes.

Agbakoba said the distinction between publishing and declaring results was crucial ahead of the 2027 general election, arguing that journalists could broadcast figures announced by presiding officers at polling units without waiting for INEC’s final declaration.

He made the remarks during an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Wednesday.

The former NBA president cited a 1984 judgment delivered by Justice Cante Johnson in a case involving the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the then Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO), now INEC, as the legal basis for his position.

“Already in 1984, Justice Cante Johnson, in the case concerning NUJ and FEDECO, now INEC, decided exactly what I’m saying, that journalists have a right to publish results,” he said.

Agbakoba explained that election results pass through several stages, from polling units to wards, local government areas, states and the national collation centre, before the final announcement.

He maintained that journalists could report results once presiding officers had publicly announced them at polling units.

“If I’m standing at the polling unit, and the presiding officer reads the results. He has read it. I can broadcast it,” he stated.

Agbakoba also predicted that political parties would deploy artificial intelligence (AI) systems to retrieve and process results uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2027 elections.

“I can tell you that political parties are going to set up AI processes whereby they’ll be able to pick from the IReV the results because the IReV is simply a compilation of all the results coming from the polling units,” he said.

However, he warned that faster reporting must be accompanied by accuracy, insisting that figures should be authenticated before publication.

“So this time I predict we’re going to see speed, but the question is whether I’m holding all the results in my hand, authenticated,” he added.

Citing Section 124 of the Electoral Act, Agbakoba argued that the provision prescribing punishment for publishing false election results also recognises the publication of election results.

He emphasised that reporting election figures does not amount to formally declaring a winner, a responsibility he said rests exclusively with INEC.

“The real confusion is the doctrinal problem of what INEC can do, which is simply declare the results. The fact that I have announced the result doesn’t mean that that is the result,” he said.

The legal practitioner also referenced the 1993 presidential election, noting that publicly displayed results helped inform projections that the late Moshood Abiola had won, despite the absence of a final declaration.

Agbakoba insisted that the judgment in the NUJ versus FEDECO case remained binding because it had not been appealed.

“There’s no question that the media, particularly, are entitled to publish results.

“In any event, the matter has been decided; it has not been appealed, and the case is NUJ versus the FEDECO, now INEC, and I think that is the decision that binds everybody, including INEC,” he said.