INEC Suspends Staff Linked To Emeka Ike’s Voter Data Leak

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended an electoral officer allegedly linked to the recent unauthorised disclosure of voter data.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this on Thursday during a fireside chat organised by the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa in Abuja.

The controversy followed the circulation of voter registration details belonging to actor and politician, Emeka Ike, during a dispute arising from a political party primary election in the Federal Capital Territory.

The commission said preliminary findings showed that its ICT infrastructure was not hacked and that there was no wider compromise of the voter register.

According to INEC, the information was allegedly accessed through valid credentials assigned to personnel involved in the Continuous Voter Registration exercise.

Haruna said INEC took immediate action after becoming aware of 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.