INEC Suspends Staff Over Emeka Ike Voter Data Leak

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has suspended staff members allegedly involved in a voter data leak connected to Nollywood actor and politician Emeka Ike. This announcement was made by INEC's chairman, Moham Haruna, during a fireside chat organized by the Peer Advocacy and Advancement Centre for Africa (PAACA) in Abuja.

The investigation, conducted in collaboration with security agencies, focused on data protection regulations. Preliminary findings indicated that there was no external breach of INEC's ICT infrastructure; rather, the data was accessed using valid credentials assigned to officials involved in the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.

The unauthorized access was identified through INEC's IT audit trail, which enabled investigators to pinpoint specific user accounts that accessed the voter records without authorization.