By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
Presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, and erstwhile Vice President, Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar, has called for a full-scale investigation into the alleged leak of information from the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Continuous Voter Registration database, arguing that the electoral body’s latest explanation has raised more questions than answers.
Already, the commission has revealed that investigation into matter has already commenced.
However, the former Vice President pointed out that INEC’s admission that voter information was accessed using valid official credentials and subsequently released without authorisation has shifted the controversy from speculation about external hacking to concerns over internal compromise and possible political interference.
Atiku, in a statement yesterday by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, insisted that the commission must explain how information stored in a restricted electoral database ended up in the public domain.
According to the statement, “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,
“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 Prof Joash Amupitan-chaired commission had maintained that its ICT infrastructure was not hacked, insisting that the information was accessed through legitimate user accounts linked to personnel involved in the voter registration exercise.
But Atiku argued that the absence of an external cyberattack does not lessen the seriousness of the incident.
His words, “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 former vice president drew attention to the role played by Lere Olayinka, spokesman to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, who publicly released the information that triggered the controversy.
“What makes this entire episode impossible to ignore is that the information in question did not emerge from a whistleblower, an investigative journalist, or an anti-corruption agency. It was publicly released by Mr Lere Olayinka, spokesman to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike,” Atiku stated.
“INEC has now admitted that the information originated from its restricted voter registration database and was accessed using valid official credentials. Nigerians are therefore entitled to ask a simple question: how did information stored within a supposedly secure electoral database travel from INEC’s internal system into the possession of the spokesman of a serving minister?”
Atiku similarly linked the controversy to recent comments made by Wike regarding the 2027 presidential election.
According to him, the issue has assumed greater significance because the FCT Minister recently predicted with certainty that Atiku would not secure up to 10 per cent of votes in Rivers State during the next presidential election.
