Festus Okoye, a former national commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has revealed that the commission’s digital platforms came under several cyberattacks during the 2023 presidential election.
Okoye made the disclosure during an interview on Deep Insights, a podcast hosted by Austin Agbonsuremi.
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, INEC had assured Nigerians that results from polling units would be uploaded to its Results Viewing Portal (IReV), an online platform designed to allow voters, political parties, candidates, observers and other stakeholders to view scanned copies of result sheets.
However, during the presidential election, the portal remained inactive for a prolonged period after voting had ended in several polling units. The delay generated widespread concerns and suspicion among Nigerians, particularly because of INEC’s earlier assurances regarding the real-time uploading of results.
Speaking about what happened, Okoye said INEC officials experienced difficulties while attempting to upload results and initially believed the problem would only last for a few minutes.
He explained that the technical issue continued for much longer than expected, forcing the commission to consider informing Nigerians about the situation.
“What really happened was that the technology malfunctioned. That is the truth of the matter. For me, technology disappointed us. I said, okay, we need to tell Nigerians that this is the difficulty we are having and that we are trying to fix it,” he said.
According to him, a press statement was later prepared to explain the situation, but he objected to the technical terminology used in describing the problem.
“And that was how the issue of glitch came into the equation,” he said.
Okoye said the situation was particularly frustrating because it happened after extensive preparations for the election, including long hours and sleepless nights by officials involved in the process.
THERE WERE ALL SORTS OF CYBERATTACKS
The former INEC commissioner, who was responsible for voter education, also disclosed that several cyberattacks were recorded against the commission’s platforms during the election period.
“I know that there were all sorts of cyberattacks on our platforms during that particular period,” he said.
However, Okoye stressed that he could not determine whether the cyberattacks were responsible for, or contributed to, the difficulties experienced by the IReV platform.
“Whether those cyberattacks influenced what happened at the end of the day, I’m not in a position to say,” he said.
He added that INEC’s deputy director responsible for information and communications technology (ICT) later appeared before the election petition tribunal to provide an explanation regarding the incident.
Source: Deep Insights Podcast
