Deep secrets behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s rejection of the Electoral Amendment Act for the 4th time has emerged.
The Electoral Amendment Act:Â The President refused to append his signature on the bill last Friday with general mixed reactions from individuals, political interest groups, others.
Investigations conducted showed that the president’s refusal to sign the bill might not be unconnected with some unscrupulous Nigerians that had perfected plans to tamper with results of the 2019 general elections with the help of modern technology.
These individuals, it was also learnt, had taken their plan a notch higher by engaging the services of a Russian firm to hack into the electoral system in order to manipulate the results in favour of their clients. Our usually impeccable source further disclosed that President Buhari declined assent because under the new electoral bill, electronic voting and transmission of results are mandatory, a situation that could have, with the hacking arrangement, vulnerably exposed the 2019 electoral process to manipulation.
According to the source, when President Buhari got wind of the sinister plot,
“he quickly contacted his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, who assured him that he would ensure that no rogue elements would find the space in Russia to interfere with Nigeria’s elections in 2019â€.
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It was also gathered that some politicians have already entered into a contract with Cambridge Analytica, a British IT consulting firm, for the management of their political campaigns, among other services. The plan, our source added’ is to use the consultancy firm
“to reach out to other ‘hacktivists’ (subversive users of computers and computer network to promote political agenda) in UK, Russia and othersâ€.
LEADERSHIP recalls that the IT consulting firm, Cambridge Analytica, had in recent past been accused of using the personal data of millions of Facebook users to influence how people vote in many countries. Following a report early this year that a former employee of Cambridge Analytica, Christopher Wylie, had told British lawmakers how an Israeli spy firm, ‘Black Cube,’ was
“engaged to hack into Buhari accounts to get access to his medical records and private emails,
†the federal Government in April this year commenced a probe into the revelation. It was reported that the federal government is also probing the report which suggested that the consulting firm that combines data mining, brokerage and analysis with strategic communications for electoral process, manipulated Nigeria’s 2007 elections by organising campaigns to weaken the chances of opposition parties. Cambridge Analytica had earlier been reported to have been hired by an unnamed Nigerian billionaire to support the re-election of a former Nigerian president in the 2015 polls. Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu had reacted then saying
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“Nigerians deserve answers from the PDP, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on how and why they improperly obtained and used data to interfere in Nigerian elections.
“An investigation should help to determine if there is a linkage between the various killings and maiming that have characterised our elections since 2007 and the misinformation activities of the Cambridge Analytica. Such investigation will also help President Buhari to achieve his wish to leave a legacy of improved electionsâ€, Shehu added It was also reported on March 28, 2015 that the INEC website was hacked by a group calling themselves the ‘’Nigerian Cyber Army’’.
In a statement posted on INEC’s website- , the group replied however that they hacked and took control of the website to protect results from being manipulated by anyone, through any means. They also claim to be protecting the rights of Nigerians to elect their leaders. Confirming the hacking through its Twitter handle, @inecnigeria, INEC said,
“We are aware of the recent hack of our @inecnigeria website, we are currently investigating this incident #NigeriaDecidesâ€
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While pre-empting the situation as well as making provision to tackle possible interference in the 2019 polls, chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, on January 30, this year, said that although the 2019 election results shall be announced electronically, the physical copies of results of the elections would be given to party agents.
President Buhari had last Friday declined assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2018, citing impending confusion that would pervade the 2019 elections if the bill is signed into law as reason for not signing the bill. Major high points of the Bill include the use of card readers and other electronic devices in the conduct of elections.
They argued that the Act is fraught with dangers which, if ignored, could create chaos and confusion during the 2019 elections.
In recent survey of views conducted, some lawyers had warned that since INEC neither budgeted for the use of card reader in the recently approved budget to conduct election nor trained officials for the use of the electronic device all this while, the use of card reader in view of 2015 experience in the country is enough to discard any idea of its use anywhere in the country for the conduct of the 2019 elections.
The use of card reader they held, requires INEC officials at the end of voting process to compare the number of voters verified by the card reader with the number of accredited voters, and total votes cast for consistency, which led to avalanche of conflicting judgements in the court after the 2015 elections. Besides, they said it is fraught with abuses and is easy to manipulate the electoral system since the election officials have not been properly trained in the use of the technological device to authenticate and transmit results.
www.sojworld.com (c) December 10, 2018
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