The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has disclosed the reason behind the delay in uploading presidential election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) portal.
Speaking to international media organisations
in Washington DC on Monday, Mohammed explained that INEC withheld the uploading
of results due to suspected cyber-attacks during the presidential poll.
Mohammed dismissed the allegations of fraud
made by the opposition, attributing it to ignorance of the electoral process.
He emphasized that the decision to withhold the upload was taken by INEC in
order to preserve the integrity of the data.
In his statement to the media, Mohammed
highlighted the legal authority of INEC in managing election results in
accordance with the court's ruling on determining the mode of election,
collation, and transmission.
He said the electoral body “withheld” the
upload “to preserve the integrity of the data”.
“Under our laws today, management of election
results is manual and the court has ruled that INEC has the exclusive right to
determine the mode of election, its collation and transmission..
“What happened on the 25th of February was
that INEC observed that the results of the presidential elections were not
being viewed. INEC, suspecting a cyber attack, withheld the uploading of the
results 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,” he said.
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