Lai Mohammed contradicts Yakubu, says INEC deliberately withheld uploading presidential election results

Minister of Information, Lai Mohammed has left many stunned after contradicting INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu’s claim that “technical hitches” prevented the electoral body from immediately uploading the February 25 presidential election results.

Lai Mohammed in an interview with the press in the US on Monday, April 3, said that INEC deliberately withheld the uploading of the results because it sensed a cyberattack on its portal.

The failure of the INEC to upload the results at the polling station, dashed the hopes of many young Nigerians, including first-time voters, who had trusted in BVAS and IReV to be the game-changer in the election and deal with the election manipulations which often arise in Nigeria’s polls.

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 cyberattack, withheld the uploading of the results to preserve the integrity of the data”.

The minister’s comment was realized to have contradicted INEC’s official position, which cited “technical hitches” as the main reason it did not upload election results on its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

Recall that INEC in a statement shortly after the polls that; “the problem is totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season, state elections to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.”

“Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems and that the IReV remains well-secured.”

Lai Mohammed also called out the opposition parties and their presidential candidates for allegedly causing unnecessary tension in the country.

“We have observed that misleading narratives have been promoted by naysayers and opposition elements. They have been asking for the elections to be cancelled,” Mr Mohammed said.