… Says Electoral Officer Supplied Details, Used Daughter’s Phone For Screenshot
…Police Detain AMAC Official As Probe Deepens
Daud Olatunji
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has uncovered how the spokesperson to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, Mr Lere Olayinka, obtained and published the voter registration details of Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike, in a breach that has now triggered police investigation and internal disciplinary action.
INEC said the sensitive voter information was not accessed through any external hack, but leaked internally by an electoral officer in 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 conducted jointly by the commission and the police established that the AMAC electoral officer accessed the record of Mr Ike, who is an aspirant for the House of Representatives under the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), and forwarded it to another INEC official.
Haruna said the chain of compromise continued when the official allegedly used her daughter’s mobile phone to take screenshots of the voter details before they were passed on.
“The EO was taken by the police for interrogation. He is still with them. He has given his own side of the story, and it tallied with what the minister’s aide confirmed — that they don’t even know each other,” Haruna said.
The INEC spokesperson described the conduct of the electoral officer as “overzealousness,” adding that the incident stemmed from abuse of authorised access rather than any breach of the commission’s database.
According to him, security operatives have so far quizzed four persons, including three INEC officials and a daughter of one of them, while mobile phones used in transmitting the screenshots have been seized as part of evidence gathering.
He added that the AMAC electoral officer, who allegedly transmitted the screenshots, has been detained by the police, while other officials earlier interrogated have been released but directed to report periodically to investigators.
The FCT media aide, Mr Olayinka, whose posts circulated the screenshots online, was also invited and questioned by the police, though he had not responded to inquiries as of press time.
The controversy erupted after Mr Olayinka published voter register screenshots purportedly showing Emeka Ike’s registration details, including information indicating a recent transfer of his polling unit to the Federal Capital Territory.
The publication sparked widespread concern over the security of INEC’s voter database, particularly as the screenshots were traced to the commission’s administrative CVR system, which is ordinarily restricted to authorised personnel.
However, INEC insisted that its systems remain secure and were not compromised by any external intrusion, stressing that the incident was an internal misconduct issue involving authorised users who abused their access privileges.
The actor, Emeka Ike, had earlier raised concerns over alleged irregularities within the electoral process, leading to heightened scrutiny of the commission’s FCT office prior to the leak.
Meanwhile, the police have continued interrogation of 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 assured that appropriate disciplinary and legal actions would follow the conclusion of investigations.
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