Jega alleges politicians infiltrated INEC’s portal during 2023 elections

A former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, claimed on Friday that desperate politicians breached the commission’s result viewing portal (IReV) in last year’s general election.

The commission came under criticism from the opposition led by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and civil society organisations over its failure to transmit the February 25, 2023, presidential election results on its portal.

Jega, who spoke on Channels Television’s programme, Inside Sources Programme, called for a thorough investigation of the matter.

He said: “In 2023, INEC did its best under very difficult circumstances, and a lot of these difficult circumstances were caused by the mindset of our selfish politicians who wanted to win by hook or by crook.

“INEC has over time introduced technology to make the process of election results very transparent with integrity, but from my own experience when I was in INEC from 2011 to 2015, I suspect that a lot of that has continued to be so up to 2023. Our reckless politicians try to be a step ahead of INEC.

READ ALSO: Nigeria is not yet a failed state – Jega

“If you introduce something today and you try it, they try to be a step ahead of you and beat it by the next election.

“And of course, they can also use ways and means to not only truncate but also bypass something that has been put in legitimately to add to the integrity of the process.

“If you ask for my opinion, I feel very strongly that INEC needs to tell us more about what happened with the IReV.

“In fact, at one point, I was even calling for a thorough public inquiry about what happened with regards to IReV.

“I feel that something has happened, that despite the confidence and the very articulate manner the INEC chairman had spoken about the IReV, it then failed.”

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