Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has called for an “independent and transparent” investigation of the unauthorised release of the voter registration details of Emeka Ike, a Nollywood actor.
Recently, Lere Olayinka, media aide to Nyesom Wike, the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister, shared screenshots on X, showing
details of Ike’s voter registration transfer from Imo state to the nation’s
capital city.
Olayinka posted the information — which appeared to come
from a restricted administrative portal of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) — while questioning the actor’s eligibility to contest a
House of Representatives seat in Abuja following his recent primary activities.
The post sparked outrage, with many Nigerians accusing
Olayinka of gaining unauthorised access to a password-protected backend system
meant only for INEC officials.
In a statement on Tuesday, INEC dismissed claims of a major
breach or external hacking of its continuous voter registration (CVR) database.
The electoral umpire attributed the unauthorised disclosure
of Ike’s voter information to the misuse of valid internal credentials by
authorised personnel.
‘MORE TROUBLING QUESTIONS ABOUT INTERNAL CONTROLS’
In a statement issued on Tuesday by Phrank Shaibu, his
senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku said although INEC has
admitted that sensitive voter information has been released without
authorisation, the commission has failed to provide answers to some questions.
The former vice-president said INEC must be able to provide
answers on how sensitive voter information in its custody finds its way to the
hands of a political actor.
Atiku added that the electoral umpire must go beyond
publishing press statements on the issue to providing full findings of the
investigation for transparency purposes.
“INEC’s statement has moved this issue beyond conjecture.
The Commission has now confirmed that voter information was accessed through
credentials assigned to personnel participating in the ongoing CVR exercise and
that such information was released without authority,” he said.
“That admission alone should concern every Nigerian.
“What Nigerians want to know is simple: how did information
that resides within a restricted electoral database find its way into the hands
of political actors and their associates?
“The fact that there was no external hack does not diminish
the gravity of the incident.
“If anything, it raises even more troubling questions about
internal controls, institutional safeguards, and the possibility of political
interference.
“The Nigerian people deserve to know the complete chain of
custody. Who accessed the information? Who requested it? Who received it? How
did it leave INEC’s custody?
“And why did the trail lead directly to political actors
associated with a serving minister who has repeatedly made unusually confident
pronouncements about the outcome of a future election?”
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