By Donald Okechukwu
A battery of allegedly crack Internet hackers suspected to have been hired by PDP and LP to manipulate presidential and National Assembly election results are demanding full payment of their contract fees after failing to hack into the INEC’s servers to compromise the election according to their contract agreement.
At Gwagwalada outskirts of Abuja where these suspects are lodged, uneasy atmosphere reigns supreme as these computer experts are insistent on collecting the balance of the contract sum after failing to hack into INEC’s servers to compromise the election results.
Sources disclosed that INEC was advised by its ICT experts to withhold the upload of the presidential and National Assembly elections results into its servers pending final results declaration. The sources explained that INEC ICT received intelligence that political parties had hired internet hackers to launch cyber attacks on INEC’s servers to compromise the election.
The sources further explained that this was why INEC refused to upload the results to its servers to preserve the integrity of the election. He added: “INEC’s position did not go down with PDP and LP, that is why they were calling on INEC, protesting to upload the results on their servers, to enable them hack into the servers to compromise the entire exercise, but unfortunately for them, INEC had already received intelligence on their plan.
As these hackers were apparently stranded and unable to successfully hack into INEC’s servers to compromise the results according to contract terms, these experts expressed worry when their calls to their employers were no longer being picked and the whereabouts of these handlers were no longer known to the hackers. For now, PDP and LP leaders are still insisting that the results be uploaded on INEC’s severs, but INEC’s Chairman Yakubu has refused to agree to the demand, citing instances of 72 failed attempts to hack into INEC’s severs in the last three days.
By Donald Okechukwu
