Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have questioned Lere Olayinka, a media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, over the alleged unauthorised release of a voter’s registration data.
This came hours after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it had begun a probe over the leakage of actor Emeka Ike’s voter data and an alleged misuse of authorised access.
Olayinka confirmed the invitation in a terse message.
“I was invited on Tuesday. I honoured their invitation,” he said.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Mohammed Haruna, had in a statement on Tuesday said the probe followed allegations regarding an alleged unauthorised access to the Commission’s Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database and the subsequent publication of information on a candidate in the recent primaries of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Federal Capital Territory.
The Commission also disclosed that the Department of State Services (DSS) had commenced an independent investigation into the matter.
It had explained that as part of the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise nationwide, authorised INEC registration officers were granted controlled access to specific components of the CVR system to enable them to register new applicants, process requests for the transfer of registration and update voter records where necessary.
“Such access is restricted to official duties only and is withdrawn at the conclusion of the exercise,” it added.
INEC had said an audit trail from the preliminary investigation enabled it to identify the user account through which the information was accessed.
“Accordingly, relevant personnel have been questioned, and all units connected with the incident are cooperating fully with the investigation.
“The Commission is also examining all technical, administrative and operational factors associated with the matter in order to establish individual responsibility and determine the circumstances surrounding the use of those credentials and identify any breach of internal access-control protocols before taking appropriate action against anyone involved,” it added.
Olayinka recently came under fire after posting Ike’s voter information on X.
He attached two images to the post, which many believed contained details obtained from INEC’s administrative login portal.
Some of the personal information contained in the screenshots included Ike’s application number, registration centre, Voter Identification Number (VIN), profile picture, name and date of application.
Consequently, the actor threatened to take legal action against Olayinka over the alleged exposure of his personal data from the INEC portal.
Ike, who contested the House of Representatives seat for the AMAC/Bwari constituency under the NDC, had told Channels Television that the minister’s aide had no right to exploit his privacy and “insult Nigerians the way he did”.
“Actions are ready; I’m ready to take him on. He has no right to exploit my privacy and insult Nigerians the way he did. If he has been doing it in the past, this should be the last time he does it,” he said on The Morning Brief on Tuesday.
