The presidency has reacted to the controversial alleged non-existence of electronic server of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The issue of electronic server was first brought to the front burner by the commission which vowed to use it in transmitting election results electronically.
However, after the outcome of the election which is being challenged at the presidential election tribunal, the electoral body claimed not to have transmitted election results to any server but collated it manually.
On Thursday, while responding to the request of the opposition party seeking access to peruse its server, the commission said it does not have a server.
The latest position of INEC has triggered reactions from Nigerians and an aide of the former vice president.
Speaking on Friday, the presidency said the onus is on Atiku to prove that the commission has electronic server it used in transmitting results during the general election.
“Someone CLAIMED to have access to a server. We then petitioned the Police & DSS to investigate him BASED ON HIS CLAIM,” Festus Keyamo, the director-general of communications for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election, said in series of tweets.
“He now turns around to say WE ARE the ones that confirmed the existence of a server, forgetting we were relying ON HIS CLAIM. Now we hear there’s even NO SERVER!” Mr Keyamo added.
The presidential spokesman said the electoral body was unable to transmit election electronically because the amended version of the electoral act where it should derive the power to do so was not signed into law by the president.
“There was NO electronic transmission of results because 1. Electoral (Amendment) Bill was not signed 2. the NCC & service providers said it was impossible since the entire country was not covered by networks & that there were many blind spots in NIG. from which it cannot be done,” Keyamo said.
“The question that those gullible ones who believe the daft story of results in a server have not answered is simply this: since NCC & service providers said there were too many blind spots in NIG not covered by networks, how were those fake server results transmitted nationwide?
“If a handful of electoral officers were compromised to ‘transmit’ results to a ‘server’, then that server must have been stationed in Cameroon, but certainly not in Nigeria. We need to go and retrieve them for a tv documentary: HOW TO MAKE QUICK BILLIONS FROM A PHANTOM SERVER,” he added.
