Saturday Guber/HoA Polls: FG battles fresh cyber security attacks
…As INEC distributes sensitive materials
…Recirculation of old Naira notes will not revive vote trading — ICPC
…Says it is prepared to prevent electoral fraud
…Election will be one of the best conducted in Nigeria — INEC boasts
By Moses Adeniyi, Ismail Azeez, Osogbo
Less than 48 hours to the gubernatorial and Houses of Assembly (HoA) polls, the Federal Government has mobilised agencies oof the Federal Ministry of Digital Economy and security. agencies to block and prevent cyber attacks on the technological assets of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
This follows commencement of the distribution of sensitive electoral materials across States in the Country. The Commission has been under pressure over security of its technological architecture from pervasive cyber attacks.
Although attention has been drawn to hard security architecture to ensure security agencies play their role in the election which authorities of the Federal Government have declared more complicated than the Feb 25 Presidential/National Assembly (NASS) elections, the security of INEC’s technology has attracted concern as intended cyber attacks which flooded the Commission’s technology during the Feb. 25 elections are feared to still be anticipated for rampage.
There have been preponderance of demands on INEC to manage technical glitches on its new technologies adopted for the election, on which the Commission has come under strong attacks.
INEC during the Presidential/NASS polls suffered no fewer than 12.9 million cyberattacks recorded from within and outside the Country.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantami, who disclosed this in a statement by his media aide, Uwa Suleiman, said over 6.9 million attacks were recorded on election day alone.
According to Pantami, the attacks were successfully blocked due to the sophisticated infrastructure on the ground by different agencies of government charged with the responsibility of protecting the nation’s cyberspace.
The Minister who commended President Muhammadu Buhari for providing the enabling environment for agencies of government to perform their assignments without hindrances, said in the build-up to the presidential elections, threat intelligence revealed an astronomical increase in cyber threats to Nigeria’s cyberspace.
“A total of 12,988,978 attacks were recorded, originating from both within and outside Nigeria. It is worth noting that the Centres successfully blocked these attacks and/or escalated them to the relevant institutions for appropriate action.
“During this period, a series of hacking attempts were recorded, including Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), email and IPS attacks, SSH Login Attempts, Brute force Injection attempts, Path Traversal, Detection Evasion, and Forceful Browsing.
“The parastatals, under the supervision of the Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy, have played a crucial role in providing the enabling environment for the successful conduct of a credible, free, fair, and transparent election,” he said.
Some departments of the government which Pantami recognised as the cybersecurity centre established under his Ministry, include the National Information Technology, NITDA’s Computer Emergency Readiness and Response Team, (CERRT); the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC’s Computer Security Incident Response Team, CSIRT; and Galaxy Backbone, GBB’s Security Operations Centre (SOC), for a job well done.
Meanwhile, in preparation for Saturday Polls, INEC has commenced distribution of sensitive materials across the Country.
In Osun, which will be having only HoA elections having held the gubernatorial election in the State last year, INEC, on Wednesday commenced distribution of sensitive materials received from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Osogbo, the a State capital, to various Local Government Areas of the State.
The State Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Dr Mutiu Agboke supervised the distribution witnessed by representatives of various political parties participating in the election.
Addressing journalists, Agboke said the sensitive materials which include ballot papers and result sheets were customised in batches for easy and quick deployment to various Local Government Areas of the State.
He expressed readiness of the Commission and other various stakeholders to ensure a seemless conduct of the election.
“This election we are going into, is as much important as the previous ones we have conducted. And because of the feelers from the State that tensions are everywhere, people have been peddling various unfounded rumours. We told ourselves at the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting that we must step up our games, we must scale up the level of arrangements, the procedure of the election and the security.
“If disruption happens anywhere it will attract zero vote. INEC will not go back there to conduct election. Where elections had been cancelled because of over voting, we will not give opportunity to anybody. The security has assured us that proper deployment will be made. We are going to secure all our levels of locations, from Ward, to Local and to State. Our armed security persons will be fully on ground at the collation centers.
“The Nigeria Police Force as the umbrella body coordinating the security activities is very much on ground. We have mapped out our threat assessment. We are doing what we need to do. So, it’s going to be a sterling outing for us in Osun and I can assure you that the election will be one of the best conducted in Nigeria,” Agbokee assured.
However, the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related Offences Commission, (ICPC) Resident Commissioner in Osun, Demola Bakare, said recirculation of old Naira notes will not aid vote trading in Osun during the Saturday’s election.
Speaking, ICPC Resident Commissioner, Demola Bakare said, “We have put strategies in place to prevent vote trading and that is important so that we will have healthy democratic practices devoid of gratification.
“We had some experiences to rely on in the previous election and we are carrying forward that experience to nip in the board those who attempt to carry out vote trading. We are going to prevent it. We made arrest during the presidential election and investigation is still on.
“We have our surveillance in place before during and after the election to prevent electoral fraud, especially the vote trading.”
The Commission also, Wednesday, commenced distribution of election materials in other States like Delta, where the INEC’s Resident Electoral Commissioner, Rev. Monday Udoh-Tom, in Asaba said, “We are here in the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Asaba, for the purpose of distributing the sensitive and non-sensitive election materials for the Governorship and House of Assembly election that is taking place on March 18.
“Though the election was earlier shifted because of some logistics challenges and the reconfiguration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) which was concluded on Tuesday.
“We are here today to take delivery of the materials to various LGAs of the State, starting with the riverine areas, like Bomadi, Burutu, Patani, Warri North, Warri South and Warri South West.
“I want to appeal to political parties in the state and those contesting to ensure peaceful election where everyone would be allowed to cast his or her vote without violence, bitterness and rancour.
“Every person that is going to win this election is from Delta. He or she is not a foreigner.
“Therefore, being an indigene of the State, we should give them all encouragement that would ensure free, fair and credible election.
“As INEC, we know what is expected of us, to go out on Election Day. Sometime, we meet hostile communities and this always makes work difficult for us.
“We appeal that everybody should sheathe their swords and go out for peaceful election where the winner will be happy and the loser will embrace the winner.”
Recall that the Federal Government has said with security architecture put in place, Nigerians need not to fear over the March 18 gubernatorial and State Assembly elections, but warned political parties to call their supporters to order.
The Government made the position following tension over heated politicking ongoing in states where the governorship race is under hot contest.
The National Security Adviser (NSA) Babagana Monguno, Monguno on Tuesday at the meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security in Abuja, had said though the Saturday polls would be complicated and contextually different from the recently concluded Feb. 25 Presidential/National Assembly (NASS) elections, yet maintained that security agencies do not envisage “a terrible or apocalyptic” situation in the next few days.
The NSA stated that a lot of security engagements had been convened, involving the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector General of Police (IGP), thus assuring confidence of security agencies to contain any form of violence.
Maintaining that the dynamics of the Saturday polls, the second phase of the general elections, would be much more different from the presidential/NASS elections that were just concluded, he said security agencies are prepared.
“Of course, the elections on Saturday are going to be much more complicated, and contextually different. First of all, we are going to have 1,021 constituencies which mean more people are interested, and more people to vote. Obviously, the dynamics would be much more different than the elections that were just concluded.
“For the security agencies, I know a lot has been done. I have been talking with the Chief of Defence Staff, and with the Inspector General of Police, who is the head of the lead agency in the process of elections.
“So far, so good, we do not envisage anything that is going to be terrible or apocalyptic in the next few days. But that does not mean that we should all do away with our state of readiness. We must comply with the rules. We must also allow everyone to exercise their fundamental rights as citizens of this Country,” he had said.
Just as the NSA called parties to order, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, called on political parties to caution their agents and supporters, stating that the Saturday March 18 polls should be treated as a contest and not war.
“The governorship and state assembly elections this weekend involve more constituencies than the national elections held about three weeks ago. Unlike the last elections involving 470 constituencies (1 Presidential, 109 Senatorial Districts and 360 House of Representatives seats), the State elections will involve 1,021 constituencies (28 governorship and 993 State Assembly seats). There will also be more candidates involved and more collation centres to protect. There are also local elections involving keen contests.
“It is therefore important for parties and candidates to speak to their agents and supporters to see the elections as a contest and not war. They should refrain from acts of violence that may mar the elections or compromise the security of our personnel, observers, the media and service providers.
“The Commission is encouraged by the directive to State Commands by the Inspector General of Police to handle all cases of electoral offences expeditiously. We look forward to receiving the case files. We will immediately set up a legal team to handle such cases in earnest,” the INEC Chairman had said on Wednesday.
Recall there were grievances registered against INEC over the use of the technologies it adopted for the election, particularly the IReV (INEC Result Viewing Portal), over which party agents lampooned the Commission for not uploading results on the portal as promised during the collation of results of the Feb. 25 presidential/NASS elections.
However, the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) in a statement signed by its Chairman Niyi Akinsiju and Secretary Cassidy Madueke observed that the preponderance of positive reports from local and International election observers on the Feb. 25 elections reflect that the process is much credible than what the allegations of the opposition parties could discredit.
BMO which concluded that it was convinced that, aside the glitches on IREV (INEC Result Viewing Portal), the 2023 election would go down in history as the best in recent history, said the glitch is not enough to discredit the election even though they acknowledged it.
According to the BMO, the reports of observers were an affirmation of the improvement in Nigeria’s electoral process under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.
