APC Petitions IGP And DSS, Calls For Investigation Into Alleged Hacking Of INEC’s Server By The PDP | Nairalaw

The APC Presidential Campaign Council has petitioned the office
of the Inspector-General of Police and the Director of State
Services (DSS) calling them to invite, interrogate and investigate
the PDP leadership over its admittance of illegal access to INEC’s
server.

The petition which was dated the 25th day of March, 2019, signed
by the Council’s official spokesperson, Festus Keyamo, SAN and made
available to TheNigerialawyer (TNL), prays the IGP and the DSS to
investigate what was described as the hacking of and/or illegal
tampering with the INEC servicer by the PDP.

SEE PRESS STATEMENT:

Monday, March 25, 2019

1. The Inspector-General of Police,

Police Force Headquarters,

Louis Edet House,

Abuja.

2. The Director-General,

Department of State Services,

Aso Drive,

Abuja.

Dear sirs,

PETITION TO INVITE, INTERROGATE AND INVESTIGATE THE PDP
LEADERSHIP OVER ITS ADMITTANCE OF ILLEGAL ACCESS TO INEC’S
SERVER

BACKGROUND

1. It would be recalled that an Electoral (Amendment) Bill
containing the provision for electronic transmission of results to
INEC’s central computer system (otherwise called “server”) was sent
to President Muhammadu Buhari by the National Assembly for assent
late in the year 2018.

2. Despite the shortness of time before the
Presidential/National Assembly Elections, and the lack of time to
first simulate the process to ensure its effectiveness in a country
like ours with problems of effective networks in many rural areas
and constant failure of technological devices, together with its
violation of the time frame of such laws as provided for in
regional and continental Protocols in terms of the length of time
required for the passage of such laws before any major election,
the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party was hell-bent that
the President should sign the Bill into law. That was the first
indication that the main opposition was up to something sinister
regarding the electronic transmission of the results.

3. Upon the last-minute postponement of the February 16, 2019
Presidential/National Assembly Elections, the nation was shocked to
see already prepared presidential elections results floating around
in the cyber space just less than 24 hours after the postponed
election was originally billed to hold! The fake results had
details of the scores of the candidates of the major parties. Of
course, the fake results gave victory to the candidate of the PDP,
Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, even when elections did not hold.

4. The only conclusion one can draw from the above is that the
PDP had prepared those results which were to be smuggled into the
INEC Server. However, the sudden postponement of the election
scuttled that evil plan, but it was too late to restrain the
release of the fake results.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

5. The proper elections were held on February 23, 2019 and
President Muhammadu Buhari declared the winner. Despite the
approval of the elections as credible by nearly all local and
international observers (except some few known PDP acolytes
masquerading as local observers), the PDP cried foul and made a
shocking claim: it claimed that from purported results it obtained
from INEC’s server, it has so-called proof that its candidate won
the election by about 1.6million votes!

6. Shockingly and coincidentally, this margin was about the same
margin by which it also purportedly “won” by the fake results
released just hours after the postponement of the February 16, 2019
Presidential/National Assembly Elections.

7. As if this expensive joke was not enough, the PDP and its
Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, have gone ahead to
file an Election Petition against the clear victory of President
Muhammadu Buhari and have repeated the same outlandish claim of
having access to INEC’s server which shows that they have some
purported results at their disposal giving “victory” to Alhaji
Atiku Abubakar.

8. Sirs, we wish you to note that INEC’s server is the back end
of electronic records of INEC. This is not INEC’s website but its
server! Although, the purported results have been conclusively
shown by public engagements to be false and even ridiculous,
especially as the total number of accredited voters is exactly
equivalent to the purported votes of the APC and PDP candidates,
this criminal claim of the PDP has revealed a few things:

(a) It is now clear that some criminally-minded PDP operatives
have access to the INEC server to be able to smuggle in fake
results into that server.

(b) The only means by which they could have access to the INEC
server is by the criminal hacking of the server or through the
criminal conspiracy of some INEC officials.

PRAYERS

The APC Presidential Campaign Council hereby prays that the
Inspector-General of Police and the Director-General of the
Department of State Services use your good offices to investigate
the hacking of and/or illegal tampering with the INEC server by the
PDP. The leadership of the PDP must be invited, interrogated and
investigated and those identified as perpetrators must be arrested
and prosecuted.

Opposition is healthy in a democracy but it is not a license for
criminality and illegality. A country governed by laws cannot be
blackmailed or cowed into indolence by the perceived underdog
status of the opposition so as to condone such a blatant criminal
claim by the PDP of having illegal access to INEC’s server.

We trust you will act with alacrity.

Thank you.

FESTUS KEYAMO, SAN, FCIArb (UK)
Director, Strategic Communications,
APC Presidential Campaign Council,
(Official Spokesperson).

Daughter of NGE’s Deputy President Escapes from
kidnappers’ Den
Mrs. Habiba Abdulsalam, the daughter of the Deputy President of
Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mallam Uba Gaya, who was abducted
recently in Kano, has regained her freedom and reunited with her
family members.

Speaking on the terrifying incident, Uba-Gaya told PRNigeria
that his daughter miraculously escaped from her kidnappers’ den on
Saturday night.

Gaya, who disclosed that the abduction of his daughter happened
between 5 and 6 pm on Friday evening, described the incident as
most ‘horrific and traumatic’ for him and the extended family.

He said they could not sleep properly, just as many of them were
tramatized and lost appetite for foods.

He added that they got to know of Habiba’s kidnap when his
younger brother called some few minutes past 5pm to inform him that
his daughter’s phone number was not reachable, after she had spoken
to a close family member at about 4:49 pm.

“On the fateful Friday, Habiba went to plait her hair in the
house of one of her friends. And after making her hair, she then
proceeded to my late father’s house in Kano metropolis. But the
ugly fate that would later befall my daughter started when she
boarded a tricycle, and the Keke rider thereafter took two other
women at various locations in Kano town, immediately he carried
her.

“According to my daughter, the Keke rider then took a road
leading to the popular Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital. Immediately, a
bus came and overtook them. It quickly stopped, and three hefty men
emerge and whisked them into the vehicle and zoomed towards
Zaria.

“When the kidnappers arrived at an area in Kaduna that Friday
evening, they took my daughter and the two other women to an
unknown house. They were blindfolded and taken to a thick forest in
Niger State,” Mal. Gaya narrated.

However, Mal. Gaya explained that his daughter’s escape was
miraculous in nature, owing to the intensive supplications offered
by family members and teeming well-wishers since the news of her
abduction broke on Friday.

Uba-Gaya further told PRNigeria that Habiba’s freedom was
secured without paying any ransom to the kidnappers even when some
members of the family had started negotiating the sale of assets in
case.

Narrating he escape, Uba-Gaya said: “What happened was that on
Saturday night, my daughter told her abductors that she wanted to
relieve herself. So, one of them followed her to an isolated area,
some metres from the place they were held hostage. But
unexpectedly, the man who accompanied her to urinate told Habiba
that she had been disturbing them and told her to leave them
alone.

“So, my daughter took the opportunity and took her heels that
night. By Sunday morning she arrived at a certain settlement In
Niger State, where she met some people and narrated with tears her
ordeal. They took her to Dikko Junction, along Kaduna-Abuja highway
and gave her a phone to call her family about her escape.

“We are glad that Habiba was not hurt by her kidnappers. Right
now, she is back in Kano after boarding an Air flight from Abuja
yesterday. Her abduction and subsequent reunion with us was without
paying a dime as ransom.”

The Deputy President of NGE expressed gratitude to the Police,
and other security agencies, especially the Army for its robust
intelligence gathering on the circumstances surrounding his
daughter’s abduction and timely release by the kidnappers.

By PRNigeria