AI voter register: Obidient Movement needs INEC ICT director, Bayode sacked

Spokesperson of the Obidient Movement, Justin Ijeh, has known as for the removing of Dr Lawrence Bayode, Director of Information and Communication Technology, ICT, on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, over controversies surrounding the looks of AI-generated pictures within the voters’ register.

Ijeh stated Bayode had no enterprise occupying such a delicate place if he couldn’t assure the integrity and safety of the electoral database.

Speaking throughout an interview on Arise News, the Obidient Movement spokesperson described the event as one other demonstration of incompetence in an space of nationwide duty the place errors might undermine democracy.

He expressed concern that Nigerians have been being confronted with allegations of manipulation of the voters’ register forward of an election with none clear indication that these accountable could be held accountable.

According to him, the electoral register is just too essential to be managed with out strict technical requirements, efficient monitoring and accountability.

“Why is the public the one having to draw attention to these issues? If you cannot manage something as critical as the voter system, you have no business being at INEC,” he stated.

He additionally recalled that Bayode supervised INEC’s ICT Directorate through the earlier elections, when the fee skilled technical glitches that raised issues about its technological preparedness.

Ijeh stated he was significantly disturbed by Bayode’s rationalization that some INEC employees had tampered with the voters’ register.

He argued that such an admission from an official chargeable for overseeing the fee’s ICT operations raised severe questions concerning the degree of management and supervision throughout the division.

The Obidient Movement spokesperson additional criticised what he described as Bayode’s lackadaisical method of addressing the allegations, saying the scenario prompt a failure to understand the significance of the duty entrusted to him.

He maintained that the administration of the voters’ register required extremely specialised technical experience as a result of the doc serves as a essential part of Nigeria’s democratic course of.

According to Ijeh, the voters’ register is actually an identification administration system that requires strict safety measures, together with zero-trust protocols, efficient verification processes and dependable audit controls.

He questioned whether or not INEC had established acceptable margins for errors, correct knowledge governance procedures and sufficient safeguards to stop unauthorised adjustments to voters’ data.

Ijeh additionally requested what maker-checker procedures and inside audit mechanisms the fee had carried out to make sure that electoral knowledge was correctly verified earlier than being printed.

He linked the controversy to earlier issues about delays in displaying the voters’ register, warning that the newest improvement might additional weaken public confidence within the electoral course of.

Ijeh, nonetheless, insisted that the event wouldn’t discourage Nigerians from demanding transparency and accountability from the electoral physique.

“INEC must be held accountable, and we are going to hold INEC accountable,” he stated.

He added that officers who lacked the required experience to handle essential electoral know-how mustn’t stay in positions the place their actions or failures might have an effect on the credibility of elections.

“If you do not understand what it takes to implement highly critical, mission-critical systems such as the voters’ register for an election, you have no business being there, sir,” Ijeh stated.