No, Nigeria's electoral commission chair Mahmood Yakubu was not arrested in the US
IN SHORT: Multiple Facebook posts claim that the chairperson of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission, Mahmood Yakubu, has been arrested in the US while on a medical trip. The claim is false.
The chairperson of Nigeria's Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec), Prof Mahmood Yakubu, has been arrested in the US capital, Washington DC. This is according to a post circulating on Facebook since 8 April 2025.
According to the post, Yakubu went to the US for medical reasons and was arrested upon arrival.
It reads:
Just In: INEC Chairman Arrested in Washington D.C. Upon Arrival for Medical Visit. The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was reportedly arrested in Washington D.C. immediately after arriving in the country for a medical visit. According to sources, his arrest is linked to the controversial 2023 presidential election in which Bola Tinubu was declared the winner despite widespread concerns over a blurred and unclear result sheet. He is expected to appear in court on Monday.
The same claim appears here, here and here.
Inec is responsible for registering voters, issuing permanent voter cards and conducting elections.
On 1 March 2023, Inec declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressive Congress the winner of Nigeria's presidential election. Opposition parties challenged the election results in Nigerian courts. They accused Inec of rigging the election in favour of Tinubu. In October of that year, the supreme court gave the final verdict, upholding Tinubu's victory.
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Yakubu has been chair of Inec since November 2015. His second term is expected to end in the last quarter of 2025. He has overseen two general elections.
On 7 April 2025, Tinubu's senior special adviser on new media, O'tega Ogra, debunked a rumour that the president had removed Yakubu from office.
But has Yakubu been arrested in the US in connection with his role in the 2023 elections? We checked.
Yakubu not in the US
Available evidence shows that Yakubu was not visiting the US when the arrest claim began circulating online.
On 8 April, Yakubu presided over the commission's weekly meeting at its head office in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. Inec posted photos of this meeting on its official X account.
On 10 April, Yakubu spoke at the extraordinary general assembly of the Ecowas Network of Electoral Commissions (Econec) in Banjul, the capital of the Gambia. Photos of him at this event were posted on Econec's website and Inec's X account.
Econec is the umbrella organisation of electoral management bodies in West Africa.
We also couldn't find any news reports that Yakubu was arrested in the US.
The claim is false.
