By Douglas Kamsela, Abuja
Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that one of its staff members is under investigation over the unauthorised disclosure of a voter record belonging to a candidate in a recent party primary in the Federal Capital Territory.
The electoral commission said preliminary findings showed there was no external breach of its Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) database and no evidence that its information technology infrastructure had been hacked.
Instead, the record was accessed using valid credentials assigned to personnel involved in the ongoing voter registration exercise, INEC said in a statement signed by National Commissioner Mohammed Kudu Haruna.
“Preliminary findings from the Commission’s audit trail so far indicate that there was no external breach of the CVR database, no hacking incident, and no unauthorised external access to the Commission’s ICT infrastructure,” Haruna said.
INEC said its audit trail had identified the specific user account through which the voter record was accessed and that relevant personnel had been questioned as part of an ongoing investigation.
The commission added that it was examining whether internal access-control procedures were violated and would take appropriate action against anyone found responsible.
According to INEC, the incident involved a single voter record and did not compromise the personal data of more than 90 million registered voters.
The Department of State Services (DSS) is also conducting a separate investigation into the matter, the commission said.
INEC said it would cooperate fully with security agencies and refer any individual found culpable for prosecution. It also pledged to make public the outcome of the investigations and any corrective measures taken.
The commission urged the public to avoid speculation while investigations remain ongoing.
