The electoral commission, INEC deliberately withheld the real-time upload of presidential election results from polling units, information minister Lai Mohammed said, according to a report by the government-owned News Agency of Nigeria.
According to Mr. Mohammed, INEC decided to halt the upload due to a possible cyberattack.
“INEC withheld the uploading of the results to preserve the integrity of the data, suspecting a hack,” he stated.
But, Mr. Mohammed’s assertion differs with what INEC notified Nigerians the day following the poll on February 25.
The commission had assured Nigerians that technological difficulties, not sabotage or cyberattack, were to blame for its inability to upload the results.
Festus Okoye, a spokesman for INEC, said at the time, “Thus, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the issues are not due to any entry or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.”
During his official interactions with a few international media organizations in Washington, D.C., Mr. Mohammed provided the government’s stance.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the minister is in Washington to discuss the recently completed 2023 elections with foreign media outlets and think tanks.
It also mentions interactions the minister has had with the “Washington Post,” “Voice of America,” “Associated Press,” and “Foreign Policy Magazine” thus far.
During the presidential and National Assembly elections that were conducted on February 25, INEC had faced criticism for not being able to upload results right away to its Result Viewing portal.
According to Mr. Mohammed, the controversy was caused by INEC’s failure to immediately upload the results of the presidential election.
Despite serving as the center of the opposition to the election’s case, he claimed that the dispute was unnecessary.
However, he claimed that the opposition’s conclusion was founded on a lack of understanding of the purpose and duties of IREV.
He asserted that IREV, a platform for uploading polling-level election results, was not intended for collating or virtually transmitting election results.
According to Mr. Mohammed, the administration of election results in Nigeria is manual and the court has decided that INEC has the sole authority to choose the method of the election, its collation, and its transmission.
“What happened on the 25th of February was that INEC observed that the results of the presidential election were not being viewed,” the minister said.
Despite serving as the center of the opposition to the election’s case, he claimed that the dispute was unnecessary.
However, he claimed that the opposition’s conclusion was founded on a lack of understanding of the purpose and duties of IREV.
He asserted that IREV, a platform for uploading polling-level election results, was not intended for collating or virtually transmitting election results.
According to Mr. Mohammed, the administration of election results in Nigeria is manual and the court has decided that INEC has the sole authority to choose the method of the election, its collation, and its transmission.
“INEC, suspecting cyberattack, withheld the uploading of the results in order to preserve the integrity of the data.
“It immediately proceeded to float an alternative platform while asking its technicians to investigate what happened to its original portal.”
Mr. Mohammed continued by saying that the alternative site didn’t begin operating until 9 p.m.
He claimed that as soon as the original portal got going, the outcomes could be watched on both platforms.
Four out of the 18 political parties in Nigeria are contesting the presidential election results right now, claiming that INEC failed to post the results to its IREV portal and committed other irregularities.
On March 1, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which is currently in power, was named the election’s victor.
Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Peter Obi of the Labour Party are two candidates who are contesting the findings. The Presidential Election Tribunal has since received their applications.