The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has detailed how Lere Olayinka, the spokesperson to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, sourced and published backend screenshots showing the personal voter registration data of veteran Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike.
In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES on Thursday, INEC National Commissioner and spokesperson Mohammed Haruna disclosed that a joint inquiry by the commission and security agencies traced the leak directly to an Electoral Officer stationed in the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), who passed the images to Mr. Olayinka.
According to Haruna, investigators initially interrogated four individuals, comprising three INEC staff members and the daughter of one employee, while confiscating two mobile devices.
The probe revealed that an INEC official pulled up the actor’s records on the internal database, while her daughter used a phone to snap photos of the screen, which were then forwarded to the AMAC Electoral Officer.
The INEC spokesperson confirmed that the AMAC official who leaked the information to Wike’s aide is currently in police custody. While the other individuals involved have been let go, they are required to maintain regular contact with the police.
Haruna attributed the breach to sheer “overzealousness,” pointing out that evidence shows the official had no prior personal relationship with the minister’s media aide.
Detailing the custody situation, he stated, “The EO was taken by the police –by the chief security officer of our chairman- to the police SARS office for interrogation. He’s still with them… he has given his own side of the story, and it tallied with what the minister’s aide (Mr Olayinka) confirmed that they don’t even know each other. But the others have been released, but they have been asked to come to report back to the police. They were there yesterday, and they were there again, and they are supposed to be there today, around one o’clock.”
The police also extended an invitation to Mr. Olayinka for questioning regarding his role.
The digital footprints leaked by Olayinka had ignited a severe backlash online because the screenshots clearly originated from the administrative backend of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) platform—a secure network meant strictly for cleared INEC personnel.
Explaining how the search was triggered in the first place, Haruna noted that FCT INEC staff pulled up Ike’s portfolio after the actor led a demonstration to their office, claiming that certain Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) figures were inside the premises.
Ike is currently vying for the AMAC/Bwari Federal Constituency seat under the NDC banner.
In a bid to undermine the actor’s political stance, Olayinka posted the inner database logs to prove that Ike had only processed the transfer of his voting center to Abuja roughly two weeks prior.
The ensuing uproar raised red flags across social media over data privacy and the potential vulnerability of the electoral umpire’s infrastructure.
However, the commission has quickly dismissed fears of an external cyberattack, maintaining that the issue was strictly a case of internal misconduct and abuse of privilege by its own staff rather than an outside hack.
