Atiku’s witness says he needs INEC’s permission to read ‘server documents’

An Information and Communications Technology expert witness,
David Njoga, called by the Peoples Democratic Party and its
presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said on Friday, that
he needed the permission of the Chairman of the Independent
National Electoral Commission to decrypt or read some documents he
claimed to have been obtained from the commission’s server.

Njoga, who said he came from Kenya to testify in the case, said
without the INEC chairman’s permission, he could not access the
said server and decrypt the documents obtained from it.

The petitioners are challenging President Muhammadu Buhari’s
victory at the February 23, 2019 poll.

Under cross-examination by respondents’ lawyers, the witness who
testified as the petitioners’ 59th witness, had said the results
being laid claim to as the authentic results of the last
presidential election obtained from INEC server were published on
www.factsdontlie.com by an anonymous INEC official.

He said he never knew the said INEC official but was able to use
“scientific method” to trace the source of the data on the website
to INEC’s server.

Under cross-examination by Buhari’s lawyer, Chief Wole
Olanipekun (SAN), the witness was confronted with some of the
documents he claimed to have been downloaded from INEC’s
server.

He was specifically shown his Exhibit A3, which was his
acclaimed state-by-state list of voters accredited through the use
of card readers during the February 23 poll.

Asked to open to Ekiti State and mention the surname, middle
name and the first name of a person on the list, the witness said,
“If you give me the INEC server key, I will decrypt it.

“This data is encrypted for security purpose.

“I can decrypt it but I am not authorised to decrypt this
data.”

Asked by All Progressives Congress’ lawyer, Lateef Fagbemi
(SAN), Njoga said it was only the INEC Chairman that could give the
authorisation to access the server.

“It is the data owner, the chairman of INEC, that give an
authorisation.

“This implies that, professionally, if the owner of the server
provides access, I will be able to decrypt, and to confirm the
source of the document.”

Asked how he was able to trace the data he analysed in his
report when he had yet to gain access to the server, he said, “I am
well trained in data sourcing.”

“I use the scientific method,” he said.

He was asked again if using his “scientific method” to source
documents from the server “without authorisation, could also be
used to tamper with the content of the said server.

He said “yes”.

Asked he said he was engaged to do the job, but was only paid
for the logistics of the job.

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NIS Boss Urges Security Spokespersons to Communicate
Always
The Controller General of the Nigerian Immigration Service,
Muhammad Babandede has tasked security spokesperson to always
communicate with the public not only when there is crisis.

Babandede made the charge when the management of the Centre for
Crisis Communication (CCC) paid him a courtesy visit in his
office.

Babandede stated that for the Nigerian Immigration,
communication is an integral part of its services. According to
him, NIS deals with the world and as such needs to communicate well
to the public.

CG NIS
with CCC Management

He disclosed that the Service take the issue of capacity
building in the areas of communication very seriously considering
that both its internal and external public are mostly elite. He
explained that as an organisation that performs both the law
enforcement agency and service facilitator, NIS takes the issue of
communication very seriously.

Appreciating the thoughtfulness of the CCC to focus on building
the capacity of information and public relations officers of
military, security, intelligence and response agencies in Nigeria,
he promised to partner the centre to enhance the capacity of
Immigration officers in the art of public communication.

Earlier in his remarks, the Executive Secretary of the Centre,
Air Commodore Yusuf Anas (Rtd), acknowledged the tremendous
achievements of the Immigration boss since assuming office.

According to him, these include the introduction of ingenious
initiatives that will aid Nigeria’s immigration challenges like the
newly introduced Immigration E-Registration, Visa-on-Arrival which
will enhance Nigeria’s ease of doing business and also
infrastructural developments aimed at repositioning the service for
effectiveness.

By PRNigeria