The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has traced the source of a controversial voter data leak to a user account belonging to personnel involved in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, ruling out fears of an external cyberattack on its database.
The commission disclosed on Tuesday that preliminary investigations showed the information was accessed through valid credentials assigned to registration officials and subsequently released without authorization.
The disclosure follows public outrage over the circulation of voter information belonging to actor and politician Emeka Ike, whose personal details appeared online after being shared by Lere Olayinka, media aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.
In a statement, National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Haruna, said INEC immediately launched an investigation after the allegations surfaced.
According to him, the commission’s audit trail enabled investigators to identify the account through which the information was accessed, while personnel connected to the incident have already been questioned.
INEC stressed that there was no breach of its ICT infrastructure, no hacking incident and no unauthorized external access to its voter database.
Rather, the commission said the leak resulted from the misuse of legitimate access granted to officials participating in the nationwide voter registration exercise.
The electoral body further clarified that the incident involved a single voter record and did not indicate any compromise of the personal information of more than 90 million registered voters.
With the Department of State Services (DSS) also investigating the matter, INEC vowed to sanction anyone found culpable and reiterated its commitment to protecting voter data.
The incident has nonetheless raised fresh concerns about internal data security and the handling of sensitive electoral information as political activities ahead of the 2027 elections begin to gather pace.