INEC should tell us why its ICT Director was transferred six months to elections – Nya Etok
Amid ongoing public backlash that has greeted the conduct of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the just concluded presidential elections in Nigeria, prominent South-South politician, and public affairs analyst, Ezekiel Nya Etok has tackled the Commission over its decision to redeploy its Director of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Chidi Nwafor, to the Southeast just six months before the polls.
Recall that while addressing journalists at a press conference in Abuja on Thursday, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi refuted claims that Mr. Nwafor’s transfer to its Enugu office back in August 2022, was the reason behind the technical glitches that prevented the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) from transmitting results from polling units to the Commission’s Result Viewing portal (iREV), adding that those behind such claims are mischievously trying to mislead the public.
According to him, Nwafor was not the brain behind the technology that was used during the presidential elections, but an invention of INEC itself.
However, reacting to Oyekanmi’s remarks during an interview on Plus TV, Saturday, Etok, who is the governorship candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in Akwa Ibom State, argued that INEC ought to explain to Nigerians why it chose to transfer Nwafor at such a time when the use of technology was going to be the major tool of the election.
He said; “It doesn’t make sense that the person who developed software or the platform for the most important action that you want to take, was transferred six months to the use or deployment of the very platform he created. INEC moved him out to become an Administrative Secretary, it doesn’t add up. Except if, of cause, it was done on punitive grounds. If that is the case, then it has to be that he defaulted in public or private interest.
“If it is in public interest, then INEC should have been in a hurry to let us know what its ICT Director did, in order to continuously gain public acceptance and trust. Because the most important aspect of everything you do in an election is to gain public confidence.
“So, for you to redeploy somebody six months to the most important action you are about to take in four years, is very suspect. And this led us to check Nwafor’s background and I must tell you that his qualifications were very intimidating and show that he was fit for the very purpose for which he was employed at INEC in the first place. Even INEC once boasted that the BVAS device was designed from within and had been tested severally with very good results. So, why then remove the person behind such a technology?”
