Former chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has denied saying that the commission had a server during his tenure.
Several quotes have been linked to Mr Jega saying INEC server existed and is ‘functional’.
“INEC server exists and it is functional. Let’s call a spade a spade. I was once INEC chairman and results were transmitted electronically during my time,” he was quoted as saying in a viral tweet.
Jega, who in 2010 replaced Maurice Iwu as substantive chairman of the commission and served until 2015, in a text message to Premium Times through an associate, denied making such statement.
He said that it was illegal for INEC to run a server under the current electoral laws.
“This is another lie mischievously attributed to me. I never said this. Besides, INEC during my time did not do electronic transmission of results. Under our current electoral laws, it is illegal to do so,” Jega said in the text.
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its presidential candidate in the 2019 elections, Atiku Abubakar, are challenging the declaration of President Muhammadu Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the election.
They claim that the results they obtained from INEC server indicated that Atiku won the poll with over six million votes margin.
However, INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has repeatedly said that it did not transmit 2019 election results to a server.
