The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that a comprehensive forensic cybersecurity investigation has conclusively proven its Chairman, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, does not own or operate any account on X, formerly Twitter.
The commission also stated that viral social media posts and screenshots attributed to him were digitally fabricated as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign.
In a statement issued in Abuja on Monday by the Chief Press Secretary and Media Adviser to the Chairman, Mr. Adedayo Oketola, INEC revealed that the controversy erupted on April 10, 2026, when Prof. Amupitan was alerted to circulating screenshots claiming he operated an X account under the handle @joashamupitan.
The screenshots allegedly showed him replying “Victory is sure” to another user, @dayoisreal, and were accompanied by purported emails, phone numbers, OPay, BVN, and data breach records presented as evidence linking the INEC boss to the account.
INEC immediately commissioned an independent forensic cybersecurity expert for a multi-layered probe involving X platform data, internet archives, OSINT tools, identity forensics, and cross-platform analysis.
“The forensic evidence is comprehensive, multi-sourced, and unambiguous. The posts attributed to Prof. Amupitan on X are fabricated. The account is a clear case of impersonation, and the surrounding activity points to a coordinated disinformation effort intended to manipulate public perception,” Oketola said.
A key piece of evidence was a critical timestamp anomaly: the viral screenshots showed the alleged reply timestamped at 4:05 PM, while the original post by @dayoisreal was published at 4:18 PM — 13 minutes later.
This made the reply technically impossible, proving the screenshot was digitally edited or AI-generated.
Further checks found no records of the @joashamupitan account on the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine before April 10, 2026.
The disputed reply was also absent from the active thread, and searches for the phrase yielded no results.
On the same day the screenshots went viral, the account was renamed to @sundayvibe00, set to private, and labelled a “Parody Account”, actions INEC described as damage-control tactics by the impersonator.
The commission dismissed links to Prof. Amupitan’s known email and phone number as failing official X recovery processes and labelled the use of BVN/OPay data as a logical fallacy, not proof of ownership.
Investigators also identified at least seven fake Facebook and Instagram accounts using his name and photos, some dating back to 2018, with recent suspicious modifications.
INEC has referred the forensic report to law enforcement agencies for the prosecution of those responsible under Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act.
The commission reiterated that Prof. Amupitan maintains strict political neutrality in line with his role.
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