Veteran journalist and former presidential aide, Reuben Abati, has called for an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the release of voter registration details allegedly obtained from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s restricted database.

Abati made the call during the “What’s Trending” segment of Arise Television’s Morning Show on Monday while reacting to the controversy involving Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike.

The controversy erupted after voter registration details belonging to Nollywood actor Emeka Ike surfaced online shortly after he announced plans to contest a House of Representatives seat in the FCT.

The records, shared by Olayinka, were alleged to have originated from INEC’s restricted administrative portal.

Commenting on the development, Abati said concerns raised by members of the public were valid, noting that the portal in question was reportedly not accessible to the general public.

According to him, if the information was indeed obtained from a password-protected backend system reserved for INEC officials, it would raise serious questions about the security of the electoral body’s database.

Abati stated that Olayinka, to the best of public knowledge, is not an INEC official and should explain how he gained access to the information.

He argued that if unauthorized persons could access INEC’s internal database, it would amount to a major breach of privacy and could potentially violate provisions of Nigeria’s Data Protection Act and Cybercrime Act.

Abati said: “People have expressed concern. Their concerns are valid as expressed.

“We’re told that it is a restricted portal open only to INEC officials, password-protected; if you don’t have the password, you cannot get there.

“In other words, it’s not a public website like the IReV portal, where you can go and check details about what’s included by INEC. 

“So, if this is a restricted confidential backend, then, of course, it means that the secret database of INEC is open to unauthorised persons. 

“Lere Olayinka, whatever, you know, is not an INEC official, to the best of our knowledge. We do not think that being a PA to the FCT minister, you know, gives him the authority to be able to egress in and out of INEC secret database.

“So for that reason, I think those who are calling for an investigation, they are very right, and we ought to know the outcome of that investigation. 

“If that secret database of INEC is now open, it should be open to all of us, so that some people cannot have privilege. We should all rig elections if they want to make it public, otherwise it will be a breach of the privacy of the person involved.

“It will even be an offence under the Cyber Crime Act. We have a law, the Nigeria Data Protection Law. We have the Cyber Crime Act. People cannot gain privileged access to what is supposed to be the backend of INEC. It means INEC’s backend is open to everybody, so we call for the investigation. We call for clarification. 

“Lere Olayinka himself should explain how he came about this, and you know, the earlier the better, so that the public doesn’t run away with a narrative that they can easily correct because it will then further raise questions about INEC.”

DAILY POST reports that as of the time of filing this report, neither Olayinka nor INEC had publicly responded to the calls for clarification and investigation.