Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong says the disclosure of Emeka Ike’s voter registration details by Lere Olayinka, media aide to the FCT minister, raises serious concerns about the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process ahead of the 2027 general election.
The controversy began after Lere Olayinka published information showing that Emeka Ike, an aspirant of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) for the Bwari/AMAC federal constituency seat, transferred his voter registration from Imo State to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The publication sparked outrage, prompting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to launch an investigation.
INEC subsequently said it had identified the user account through which the information was accessed and released without authorisation.
The commission maintained that there was no external breach or hacking of its database, adding that the record was accessed through valid credentials assigned to personnel involved in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
BREACH OF DATABASE
Speaking on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Effiong argued that the incident amounted to a breach of the commission’s voter database regardless of how the information was obtained.
“When you have critical national infrastructure, the Continuous Voter Registration database, being exposed in this manner, publicly, shamelessly and audaciously, it tells you, contrary to what INEC is trying to tell Nigerians, that the integrity of the coming election cannot be guaranteed,” he said.
“It tells you that people have unauthorised access to INEC infrastructure.”
Responding to INEC’s claim that there was no external breach of its database, Effiong said the commission was attempting to downplay the seriousness of the incident.
“Let’s even take their statement on face value,” he said.
“What does unauthorised access mean? What does data breach mean? I think these people are deceiving themselves.”
The lawyer argued that the fact that voter information was released to a third party outside the commission constituted a breach.
“Olayinka is not an official of INEC,” he said.
“He had access to information through an official of INEC.”
THERE MIGHT BE OTHER UNREPORTED CASES
Effiong said the release of the information raises questions about the number of officials who may have improper access to sensitive voter data.
“To the extent that critical voter information of a Nigerian has been exposed, how many of such personnel do we have in INEC?” he asked.
“How many rogue personnel do we have in INEC today?”
He also criticised the electoral commission for what he described as its failure to immediately involve relevant agencies responsible for investigating data breaches.
“INEC has not deemed it fit to even report this data breach to the Nigerian Data Protection Commission,” he said.
“INEC did not even file any complaint with the DSS or the police.”
Effiong noted that INEC’s own statement indicated that the Department of State Services (DSS) commenced an investigation on its own initiative rather than at the request of the commission.
“In their statement, they said the DSS, on its own accord, has undertaken an investigation,” he said.
“INEC did not deem it appropriate to invite the police, the DSS or the Nigerian Data Protection Commission to investigate this matter.”
He said the incident should serve as a wake-up call for the commission to strengthen safeguards around voter information ahead of the 2027 elections.
