Mr Lawrence Bayode, Director of Information Communication and Technology (ICT) for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has disclosed that the investigation of the purported X (formerly Twitter) account belonging to its Chairman, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, will be escalated to relevant agencies, news.ng reports.
Bayode made this known during an interview on Channels Television on Tuesday morning.
You may recall that on Monday, INEC, in a statement, disclosed that the purported X account bearing the name of its chairman was fake. This followed an independent investigation that was conducted.
Meanwhile, Bayode noted that the matter has been handed over to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for prosecution.
He said, “And we have also subjected the findings to multiple layers of technical verification. And I said earlier that the reason why we are not publicly disclosing this expert is because the matter is now going to the National Cybercrime Centre under the Nigerian Police Force (NPF).”
While the investigation sanctioned by the electoral umpire might have been conducted and concluded, with findings made public, the ICT Director added that the matter will not end with the commission.
“This is a unit that is held with the responsibility of prosecuting any cybercrime matter. And everything that we have done, like I said earlier, is based on OSINT. I’m sure the Nigerian Cybercrime Centre, which is under the police force, will do their own investigation and they will come out with their own report.
“This matter now is going to them. It’s not that INEC, Georgetown Commission and Independent Forensic Cybersecurity Expert. And we believe that the matter will end there. No, the matter is not ending there.
“And that is why INEC is taking it further to the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCCC) for them to also carry out their own investigation,” Bayode explained.
