2019 election pdp accuses inec of replacing servers to conceal rigging
You're referring to a significant controversy in Nigeria's 2019 general elections!
In 2019, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of replacing servers to conceal rigging in the presidential election. The PDP claimed that INEC had replaced the original server used for the election with a new one, which had been tampered with to alter the results.
The controversy arose after the PDP's presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, challenged the victory of the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, who was re-elected under the All Progressives Congress (APC) party. Atiku's campaign team alleged that INEC's server showed that he had won the election, but the commission denied this, claiming that it did not use a server for the election.
The PDP's accusations were based on a report by a US-based cybersecurity firm, Silverbird, which claimed to have accessed INEC's server and found evidence of tampering. The report alleged that the server had been hacked and the results altered to favor the APC.
INEC, however, denied the allegations, stating that it did not use a server for the election and that the results were transmitted manually. The commission also claimed that the PDP's allegations were baseless and an attempt to undermine the integrity of the electoral process.
The controversy led to a series of court cases, with the PDP seeking to compel INEC to produce the original server and allow an independent audit of the election results. However, the courts ultimately dismissed the PDP's petitions, upholding Buhari's re-election.
The controversy highlighted concerns about the integrity of Nigeria's electoral process and the need for reforms to ensure transparency and accountability. It also sparked debates about the role of technology in elections and the need for robust cybersecurity measures to prevent tampering with election results.