The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended an electoral officer who was reportedly involved in the recent unauthorised release of voter data.
Mohammed Haruna, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, shared this news on Thursday at a fireside chat hosted by the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa in Abuja.
The issue began after voter registration details for actor and politician Emeka Ike were shared during a dispute over a political party’s primary election in the Federal Capital Territory.
The commission said early findings showed that its ICT systems were not hacked and that the voter register was not broadly compromised.
INEC explained that the information was reportedly accessed using valid credentials given to staff working on the Continuous Voter Registration exercise.
Haruna said INEC acted quickly once they learned about the incident.
“As soon as this thing happened, of course we were worried and we took immediate steps. As I am talking to you now, the officer involved is under suspension. He is no longer functioning in that office,” Haruna said.
He added that the officer had been removed from his position pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.
Haruna said INEC had completed its internal investigation and referred the matter to the relevant authorities.
“The police have done their own investigation. The DSS has also conducted investigations. We have completed our own internal investigation and suspended the officer. We are waiting for the final reports before taking the next step,” he said.
He added that the case had also been reported to data protection authorities.
The commission maintained that the incident involved a single voter record and did not affect the data of over 90 million registered voters.
Haruna said INEC would continue to strengthen safeguards around voter information and work with security agencies, civil society groups and data protection regulators to protect citizens’ personal data.