The Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, has debunked claims that he said results of the February 25 presidential election were intentionally withheld by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
A report on Tuesday credited a statement to the minister who is currently in Washington DC, saying that INEC deliberately withheld results from polling units because of fear of cyber attacks.
“What happened on the 25th of February is that, INEC observed that the results of the presidential election were not being viewed.
“INEC, suspecting cyber attack, withheld the uploading of the results in order to preserve the integrity of the data. It immediately proceeded to float an alternative platform while asking its technicians to investigate what happened to its original portal,” the minister was quoted to have said.
However, Mohammed dismissed the report through a statement issued on Wednesday, saying his claim was deliberately skewed to mislead the public.
The minister said: “The truth of the matter is that, one of the major problems in the polity today, is a section of the media. These are people who cannot just belief that the Labour Party or the opposition did not win the election.
“They convinced themselves that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will loose the election. As a result of this there is nothing you want to say or do, they will find a way to twist it and make it what they want it to look like.
“What I said was that, during the election, there was a technical glitch and as a result of this and for INEC to protect the data, it suspended uploading of the results. INEC immediately set up a technical team to look into what went wrong and simultaneously floated another platform,” he added.