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…says the election official provided the details and used his daughter’s phone for the screenshot
…Police detain AMAC official as investigation deepens
Daud Olatunji
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has exposed how Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike’s spokesperson, Lere Olayinka, obtained and published voter registration details of Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike, in a breach that has now triggered police investigations and internal disciplinary action.
INEC said the sensitive voter information was not accessed through any external hack, but was leaked internally by an electoral officer of the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), who allegedly retrieved the data from the commission’s Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) backend system.
Speaking on Thursday, INEC spokesperson, Mohammed Haruna, said preliminary investigations jointly conducted by the commission and the police established that the AMAC electoral officer accessed the documentation of Ike, who is a House of Representatives aspirant of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and forwarded it to another INEC official.
Haruna said the chain of compromise continued when the official allegedly used his daughter’s mobile phone to take screenshots of voters’ details before they were transmitted.
“The EO was taken by the police for questioning. He is still with them. He gave his side of the story, and agrees with what the minister’s assistant confirmed: that they don’t even know each other,” Haruna said.
The INEC spokesperson described the electoral officer’s conduct as “overzealous”, adding that the incident stemmed from the abuse of authorized access rather than a breach of the commission’s database.
According to him, security agents have so far interrogated four people, including three INEC officials and the daughter of one of them, while mobile phones used to transmit the screenshots have been seized as part of evidence gathering.
He added that the AMAC election official, who allegedly forwarded the screenshots, was arrested by police, while other officials previously questioned were released but ordered to periodically report to investigators.
FCT Media Assistant, Mr Olayinka, whose posts leaked the screenshots online, was also invited and questioned by the police, although he had not responded to questions by press time.
The controversy erupted after Olayinka posted screenshots of the voters register purportedly showing Emeka Ike’s registration details, including information indicating a recent relocation of his polling unit to the Federal Capital Territory.
The publication sparked widespread concern about the security of INEC’s voter database, particularly as the screenshots were traced back to the commission’s CVR administrative system, which is normally restricted to authorized personnel.
However, INEC insisted that its systems remained secure and were not compromised by any external intrusion, stressing that the incident was an internal misconduct issue involving authorized users who abused their access privileges.
The actor, Emeka Ike, had previously raised concerns over alleged irregularities within the electoral process, leading to increased scrutiny of the commission’s FCT office prior to the leak.
Meanwhile, police continued to question suspects as investigators attempt to establish the full chain of custody of the leaked data and determine possible breaches of official protocol within the commission.
INEC has assured that appropriate disciplinary and legal action will follow the conclusion of the investigation.
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