The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described as ‘bunkum and garbage’ that is not worth the paper on which it is written, the alleged findings from the investigation by the Department of State Security Service (DSS) on the raid of its data centre in Lagos.
The DSS had alleged that the APC planned to hack into the Independent National Electoral Commission’s voters’ registration database ahead of the 2015 general elections.
But, briefing newsmen on Sunday, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, said the allegation was based on wrong premise.
The opposition party alleged that the DSS is working with the ruling PDP to find excuses to discredit the voters register with the ultimate aim of calling for the postponement of the February elections.
Mohammed stated, “The fact that the DSS made the allegation at all shows that the agency does not understand the concept of hacking, which is pathetic for a primary intelligence agency of its stature.
“We make bold to say that those findings cannot stand a serious scrutiny by independent investigators because the DSS worked backwards, from answer to question, in an effort to reach a pre-determined conclusion.
“The DSS findings are baseless as INEC’s database is a reflection of the registered members with the Permanent Voter Cards.
“Please note that at the time of the DSS raids, the PVCs had already been printed.
“Therefore, of what value would it be to hack into the system and input more names.”
Mohammed said it was not possible for the APC to hack into the INEC Data as the database was not online.
“Therefore, it is not possible to hack into INEC’s database.
“The DSS has claimed that hacking tutorials were discovered on an external hard drive.
“This is not true; all the USB ports on the pc systems in the office were disabled to prevent virus intrusion.
“Therefore, the use of external hard drives is not allowed at the APC Data Centre.
“If this is so, how is it possible for an external hard drive containing these so called hacking materials to be found on the premises of the APC Data Office?
“The question to ask is: Would the party have employed these people if the intent was to hack into INEC’s database or employed gurus in the IT world?
“It is clear that the DSS purchased a hard drive and downloaded the information themselves from the Internet.”
On the alleged registration of members of the armed forces and para-military, the APC spokesperson reacted, “The question to ask the DSS is: Will any member of the armed forces and para-military organisations join a political party using a passport photograph of himself or herself in uniform?
“To the best of our knowledge, a baby cannot vote. So, why will any organisation register a baby as a member?
“Our application edits date of birth, hence will not allow the registration of under-aged persons.
“The DSS should tell the world where it got the pictures of babies that it affixed to the blank forms that were carted away from our data centre.
“We did not and could not have registered babies as members. This allegation is nitwitted, to say the least.”
“Apparently, the thinking at the DSS, which is working in cahoots with the PDP, is that its report that the APC plans to hack into the voters’ registration Data Base of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will raise doubts about the integrity of the voter’s register to be used for the forthcoming polls, and subsequently force a postponement of the elections since the existing register cannot be used for the polls,” Mohammed said.
