Atiku Demands Probe Of Emeka Ike’s Voter Data Leak By Lere Olayinka

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has called for an independent and open investigation be carried out into the alleged leak of voter registration details belonging to Nollywood actor Emeka Ike.

The controversy began after Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, posted screenshots on X showing Ike’s voter registration transfer from Imo State to Abuja.

The information appeared to have come from a restricted section of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) system.

Olayinka used the post to question Ike’s eligibility to contest a House of Representatives seat in Abuja after his recent political activities.

However, the post quickly drew public criticism, with many Nigerians accusing him of improperly accessing confidential electoral data.

In response, INEC denied claims that its database was hacked, explaining that the incident was not caused by an external breach but by the misuse of valid access credentials by authorised personnel.

Reacting in a statement issued by his aide on public communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said the explanation from INEC still leaves several important questions unanswered.

He stressed that the electoral body must explain how sensitive voter information ended up in the hands of political actors and insisted that a full investigation report should be made public.

“INEC’s statement has moved this issue beyond conjecture. The Commission has now confirmed that voter information was accessed through credentials assigned to personnel participating in the ongoing CVR exercise and that such information was released without authority,” he said.

“That admission alone should concern every Nigerian.

“What Nigerians want to know is simple: how did information that resides within a restricted electoral database find its way into the hands of political actors and their associates?

“The fact that there was no external hack does not diminish the gravity of the incident.

“If anything, it raises even more troubling questions about internal controls, institutional safeguards, and the possibility of political interference.

“The Nigerian people deserve to know the complete chain of custody. Who accessed the information? Who requested it? Who received it? How did it leave INEC’s custody?

“And why did the trail lead directly to political actors associated with a serving minister who has repeatedly made unusually confident pronouncements about the outcome of a future election?”

KanyiDaily recalls that Governor Amuneke recently revealed why he rejected an offer to become INEC youth ambassador.