#NigeriaDecides: Our server not under attack – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said that the Results Viewing Portal (IReV) was not under attack in any way.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye in a statement issued on Sunday said the commission takes full responsibility for the problems and regretted the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties and the electorate.

He also admitted that the Commission was aware of challenges with the IReV, but assured that the challenges the commission was encountering were not due to intrusion on its system.

The commission regretted the setback, especially because of the importance of IReV in its results management process and noted that unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it has been relatively slow and unsteady.

INEC noted: “The problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, state elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.

“Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems and that the IReV remains well-secured.”

The electoral body assured that its technical team was working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, adding that users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.

The commission further assured Nigerians that results from the polling units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal.

It said these results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation would be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.