How Wike's aide got Emeka Ike’s voter details, INEC explains

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has shared how Lere Olayinka, the spokesperson for the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, got and published screenshots of Nollywood actor Emeka Ike's voter registration details.

In a phone interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, INEC spokesperson Mohammed Haruna said an investigation by INEC and the police showed that an electoral officer in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) gave the screenshots to Mr Olayinka.

Mr Haruna said the police first questioned four people. This included three INEC officials and one of the official's daughters. The police took the mobile phones of one INEC official and her daughter.

The INEC official accessed Mr Ike’s details on the voter register and shared them with the AMAC electoral officer. The official took the screenshot using her daughter’s phone.

The INEC spokesperson said the police have arrested the AMAC electoral officer who sent the screenshot to Mr Olayinka. He mentioned that the electoral officer is still under investigation while the others have been released but must continue to check in with investigators.

Mr Haruna described the action of the electoral officer as “overzealousness.” He said investigations showed that the official had never met Mr Olayinka in person before.

“The EO was taken by the police, by the chief security officer of our chairman, to the police SARS office for questioning,” he said.

“He is still with them... he has shared his side of the story, and it matched what the minister’s aide (Mr Olayinka) confirmed about them not knowing each other. The others have been released but have to report back to the police. They were there yesterday, and they were there again, and they are supposed to be there today around one o’clock.”

The police also called and questioned Mr Olayinka. The FCT media aide did not answer or return calls from this newspaper. He also has not replied to our message asking for a comment.

Mr Olayinka had posted screenshots showing personal voter details of Nollywood actor Emeka Ike. The screenshots caused worry because they were taken from an administrative backend of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) system, which is only accessible to authorized INEC officials.

According to the INEC spokesperson, the commission’s officials in the FCT office checked Mr Ike’s details on the CVR after he led protesters to the office on Friday. He was alleging that some officials of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) were at the INEC FCT office.

Mr Ike is running to represent AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives under the NDC.

In criticizing Mr Ike, Mr Olayinka posted screenshots from the voter register. The screenshots showed that Mr Ike had only transferred his polling unit to the FCT about two weeks before.

This issue got public attention after social media users noticed that the screenshot came from INEC’s CVR administrative portal. This raised worries about the security of voter data and the chance of unauthorized access to INEC’s systems.

But INEC has tried to calm fears that its systems were hacked or accessed by outsiders. INEC made it clear that the incident was about misuse of authorized access by its officials, not an external breach of its systems.