Presidential poll : INEC withheld uploading of results because of cyber attacks – Lai Mohammed

Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) delayed the uploading of results to its portal due to suspected cyber attacks during the presidential poll.

Mohammed said the allegation of fraud being bandied by the opposition is a result of ignorance of how the process works.

Speaking with some international media organisations in Washington DC on Monday, he said the electoral body “withheld” the upload “to preserve the integrity of the data”.

According to NAN, the minister spoke with the Washington Post, Voice of America, Associated Press and Foreign Policy Magazine.

“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,” he said.

“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.”