.. As INEC Is Cleared Of APC Bias
By Wole Olujobi
The subterfuge is here. After a long lull in the game of trickery by election playmakers in the nation’s political chessboard, Nigeria is back again in the loop of astounding round of assorted blackmail to hector innocent fellows and the entire system into the dustbins of infamy over the offence they never committed.
In the devious game of calumny that has potential to ruin whatever bright laurels the victims might have acquired, perpetrators close their hearts to empathy, choosing instead to invent disingenous schemes wrapped in heartless lies to ruin the lives of fellow innocent human beings, including the state’s system that governs the nation’s affairs.
This noxious act in the art of politics is popular among the cyber insurgents arm of the opposition class, and it has been elevated into a norm in Nigerian politics, gaining traction in the heat of efforts by Ekiti people to get justice over the heavily rigged 2007 governorship poll between the Action Congress (AC) and People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
In the election crisis that took three and half years to resolve in courts, a judge renowned for equity and probity, Justice Ayo Salami, was accused by PDP of secretly exchanging text messages between AC leaders and the trial judges to allegedly influence judgement in favour of AC. Salami denied the charge, insisting that his MTN telephone number must have been hacked and cloned by cyber criminals to perpetrate the fraudulent act.
Responding and rising to the occasion, the Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) set up a probe panel to investigate the matter, more so that the period was notorious for proven cases of judicial manipulations that led to the dismissal of two judges over unprofessional conducts at the Bench over election petitions cases. An instance was the Anambra case where a candidate that didn’t contest a senatorial election was declared the winner by two trial judges (names withheld). They were dismissed by NJC.
The NJC Bench hearing of the Ekiti State matter involving Salami was chaired by a senior jurist. A telecoms expert was brought from one of the nation’s security agencies to the panel to demonstrate that it was possible to clone telephone numbers of innocent people to send incriminating messages on behalf of those innocent people to other people.
At the panel hearing, the cyber security expert cloned the phone number of the panel’s chairman and used the cloned number to send a message threatening another jurist sitting next to the chairman.
Shocked and alarmed at the development, sensation rang through the room, as it became the matter of inability to prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, hence the collapse of PDP’s case in the matter.
The NJC cleared Salami, who later spoke on September 19, 2013 on how his telephone number was cloned by criminals to implicate him in election petition hearing.
Salami explained his sordid experience at the presentation of a book titled ‘Nigeria Judiciary: Contemporary Issues on Administration of Justice’ as part of the ceremonies organised by the Ilorin branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA,) marking his retirement on October 15, 2013.
Salami had said: “You are all aware of the calls log issue. None of them, not a single one, showed that I ever called Tinubu, Lai Mohammed– the ACN chieftains they were referring to.
“We went to the tribunal (probe panel) with witnesses (experts) who were able to show NJC that you could use my phone in my pocket to call somebody. The expert demonstrated it at NJC. You could use my phone, which is in my pocket, to send text messages to another person. All these calls logs were fake, but we thank God we survived all the efforts to paint us black.”
It was later discovered that cyber criminals and their 419 counterparts had creamed off millions of naira from desperate politicians that lost Ekiti election but desperately needed to use any means to win the election after these criminals had sold a dummy that they had evidence of communication between Tinubu, his supporters and Justice Salami, which they could use to prosecute the alleged fraud at the tribunal to secure victory.
This happened at the time that MTN cried out on the rooftops that criminals were cloning its numbers to commit crimes.
Ekiti sordid electoral malfeasance involving INEC and judicial conspiracies threw light on the evils of electoral manipulation in Nigeria and marked the beginning of the end of the era of audacious poll robbery after the institution of the Nigerian Electoral Reform Committee constituted by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’adua and a review of its report headed by Senator Ken Nnamani in 2016 after President Muhammadu Buhari, himself a victim of alleged poll fraud, vowed to fight corruption in the Nigeria’s systems.
The second online fraud related to election contest was polls tracking fraud by Internet crooks who deceived Nigerians that a particular political party stood a good chance for election victory.
An instance of misleading polls tracking agencies is NOI Polls Foundation, a shadowy group behind misleading or outright fake poll tracking in Nigeria. Notorious for misleading polls tracking results ahead of elections, the poll company, which appeared to rely on fraudulent cyber manipulators and their hideous acts in 2015 presidential poll, gave President Goodluck Jonathan over 70 per cent chance above APC candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, and falsely predicted that Jonathan would win the entire North Central, South West and South South with Buhari winning only North East and North West and, again, later predicted that Dr Peter Obi would win the North Central in the 2023 polls to defeat other candidates.
In fact, in its opinion polls before presidential primaries in 2014, NOI had rated Buhari fourth behind Dr Goodluck Jonathan, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos, in that order, among other prospective presidential aspirants, even though Fasola never told anyone that he would contest any election.
But in the results that emerged, Buhari not only defeated Kwankwaso in APC primaries, he also went ahead to defeat Jonathan in the 2015 presidential election, thus NOI’s prediction collapsed on its promoter’s face after Jonathan had wasted his money to procure a misleading projection by cyber manipulators.
The same NOI predicted that Dr Peter Obi would win the 2023 presidential poll even though his Labour Party had neither structures, leadership and support base nor programme appeal that could sway voters’ interest in its favour. By the time Tinubu won, the losers cried blue murder, accusing INEC and its Chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu, of manipulating the election in Tinubu and APC’s favour.
At every election after failure, INEC is always the scapegoat. We also saw this at the INEC collation centre when President Jonathan lost in 2015. The same is about to play out in 2027 as APC consolidates while opposition parties are in disarray over allegation of audacious usurpation of the structures of other political parties or sheer greed in political manipulations.
Today, the same characters that imported the culture of cyber fraud into the Nigeria’s political system have assembled themselves in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) housing elements with differing and questionable social values and conflicting philosophies.
In the latest gambit, ADC, a refugee camp for displaced politicians, have started to dig in, accusing the INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, of working for APC.
The opposition party that is built on the quicksand of illegal usurpation of the structures it did not build and is ideologically divided into three groups, each in court fighting for legitimacy, had cited certain posts on X, alleging that the INEC chairman had sympathy for APC and so cannot be trusted to conduct a free and fair election, hence, calling for his resignation, which has potential to cause chaos in the election process that has already started.
The most vociferous in anti-APC scheme is former Senator Dino Melaye from Kogi State; a member of ADC and an audacious Nigerian epicure, scurrilous in nature and unabashed foppish dandy, who has no record of possessing appealing political leadership graces, but who has since been boasting that he will defeat President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in a free and fair election even though in the last governorship election in which he participated, he scored a miserable 46,362 votes while his counterpart, a neophyte Usman Ododo of APC, scored 446, 237 votes.
Earlier, the serving House of Representatives member representing Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu Federal Constituency, new-comer Tajudeen Yusuf, had roundly defeated Dino Melaye in the re-run election to pick the Kogi West Senatorial ticket on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
His rejection in his native constituency is not without basis. This is a former Senator whose projects commissioning scheme in his entire political life is all about flaunting the assortment of Hollywood posh and customised cars among his poverty-stricken people in the expansive and exclusive compound that receives neither his constituents nor immediate and extended family members. With nothing to write home about in popularity among his people, the proclivity will be to blame INEC for conducting “fraudulent” poll if he loses in election to any opponent.
This opportunistic and crass manipulation of the electorate represents a classic case of unconscionable tricks by carpet baggers in Nigerian politics to cause chaos in the election they never have any chance of winning.
But the facts emerging have proven conclusively that subterfuge is being deployed by fraudulent and flippant politicians to cause chaos after election because they do not have what it takes to defeat APC in the next rounds of elections, hence they must discredit INEC to cause national chaos.
In the latest forensic probe of the opposition’s allegation against INEC, it has been discovered that cyber criminals working for these opposition elements are behind the fraudulent scheme to mislead Nigerians into believing that INEC is working for APC.
The forensic investigation of the allegation against INEC chairman discovered a systemic fraud scheme perpetrated by cyber insurgents working for the opposition. The report found that the online uproar triggered by viral screenshots suggesting the INEC chairman operated an X handle (@joashamupitan) and posted a partisan message, “Victory is sure,” in reply to another user was a fluke.
Forensic specialists using X platform analytics, OSINT techniques, internet archive data and timestamp verification, in their investigations have concluded that Prof. Amupitan does not operate any personal X account.
A key part of the report explained: “The X account attributed to Prof. Amupitan is a clear case of impersonation. All alleged posts, replies or statements linked to him, are fraudulent and unverifiable.”
According to the report, the analysis showed that the account in question was created in September 2022 but had no connection to the professor’s verified email addresses or official institutional contacts.
The report added that the major inconsistency highlighted in the report involved the timing of the alleged post, explaining that the
alleged reply ‘Victory is sure’ was posted 13 minutes before the original post it responded to, which is “physically impossible on any digital platform”.
Investigators further established that the reply could not be found on the live X platform or in archived records, noting: “The reply has never existed on X. It is absent from both live threads and historical records.”
Curiously, the leader of the party promoting this desperate subterfuge is an accomplished coup plotter, who has no pro-people records. He once vowed to shoot a President-elect in the head if announced as winner by INEC. He had earlier while he was Communications Minister declared himself as Nigeria’s public enemy Number One by saying that telephone was not for poor Nigerians at the time the rural Cotonou banana sellers were using mobile phones.
Today, his party is out to savage the burgeoning system that holds promise for the survival of democracy, and, indeed, the nation after years of gruelling attempts at instituting a working system to make democracy thrive like in the successful democracies around the world.
The Ekiti State they want to use as a test case to sabotage democracy has Governor Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji that is strong on performance, noble in character and pro-people in orientation, which easily attracts the trust of Ekiti people, including a large chunk of the opposition leaders. Oyebanji is being supported by the masses of Ekiti people to carry the banner of Ekiti salvation mission to the June 20 governorship election and he is backed by the various segments of the society in a one-on-one community-based campaign strategy to reach every home in campaign trail ahead of the June 20 poll.
In the days ahead, the usurpers will devise various schemes for elaborate plots to discredit the oncoming governorship poll in which Oyebanji is set for a resounding victory. But Nigerians, and, indeed, Ekiti people, already understand the tricks.
Ekiti people’s mission is clear. The verdict is here. Ekiti voters have made their choice. No anti-people scheme or INEC’s blackmail can sway Ekiti people from the route they have chosen in their support for the APC’s Oyebanji to lead them to the promised land.
* Olujobi is Deputy Director 1, Directorate of Media and Communications, Ekiti State 2026 Governorship Campaign Council