A gender rights organisation, Centre for Redefining Alternative Civic Engagem has documented 51 incidents of online gender-based violence (OGBV) against women during the Osun State governorship election held on August 15.
The organisation, in its post-election report released on Monday and signed by its Executive Director, Evelyn Ugbe, said the incidents were recorded between August 1 and 16, 2026, using its AI-enabled Online GBV Tracker.
According to her, the attacks targeted not only the four women who appeared on the ballot but also female voters, mobilisers, party officials and agents, INEC/Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) officials, and civil society actors.
The report said voters and mobilisers constituted the largest category of targets, accounting for 51.9 per cent of recorded incidents, followed by party officials and agents at 26.9 per cent.
Candidates accounted for 9.6 per cent of the incidents, with only four women contesting as either governorship or deputy governorship candidates in the election.
The report emphasized that the four women were Yemisi Adeagbo Opawoye of the African Democratic Party (ADP), who contested the governorship, and three deputy governorship candidates — Temitope Agiri of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Kehinde Aresa of the Boot Party and Oluwabusayo Adeyera of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
RACE, a feminist organisation working at the intersection of gender justice and technology accountability, said the findings were particularly concerning given the already low level of women’s representation in political contests, warning that sustained online hostility could discourage women from participating in politics and civic activities ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The report revealed that 73.1 per cent of the recorded incidents involved sexist and misogynistic hate speech, while 26.9 per cent involved sexual harassment.
It said a significant proportion of the attacks originated from identifiable accounts, with 68.6 per cent traced to named accounts and another 13.7 per cent originating from verified accounts.
Media and blog pages were responsible for spreading an additional 15.7 per cent of the recorded OGBV content, according to the report.
On the severity of the attacks, the report said 76.9 per cent of incidents were classified by its monitors as posing an “Immediate Risk”, meaning they had the potential to escalate into offline physical harm, doxxing or serious reputational damage.
The report identified X, formerly known as Twitter, as the leading platform for the attacks, accounting for 63.3 per cent of recorded incidents.
It also highlighted gaps in the moderation of content expressed in Nigerian local languages, saying 18.4 per cent of abusive content was in Yoruba, while 10.2 per cent was in mixed languages.
Ugbe described the findings as evidence that online gender-based violence was being used as a tool of political suppression during the election.
She said the fact that many perpetrators used identifiable accounts without facing consequences pointed to a culture of impunity, while criticising technology companies and Nigeria’s electoral framework for failing to adequately protect women from digital violence.
Ugbe called for urgent action ahead of the 2027 elections, including stronger content moderation, better reporting mechanisms and greater accountability for perpetrators.
The Centre urged social media platforms, particularly X and Meta, to overhaul their moderation systems and expand human moderation capacity in local languages, including Yoruba and Pidgin.
It also called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to integrate OGBV monitoring into its electoral security framework, publicly condemn digital violence against women and hold political parties accountable for the online conduct of their campaigns and supporters.
The organisation urged law enforcement agencies to apply the Cybercrimes Act fairly in prosecuting serious cases involving threats of physical harm, while cautioning against using the law to suppress legitimate free speech.
It recommended dedicated reporting channels for women in political life, including candidates, voters, journalists and civil society actors, as well as the formal incorporation of OGBV tracking into election observation frameworks.
Sodiq Omolaoye
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