I did not say INEC deliberately withheld uploading election results – Lai Mohammed

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture refuted several online reports credited to him that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately withheld the real-time upload of presidential election results from polling units.

Lai Mohammed made the clarification that has been published in some online platforms while in Washington DC, saying it is irresponsible and reckless.

He said the report was a deliberate falsehood, twisted by the online platforms to serve their selfish interests, he called it irresponsible and reckless journalism.

According to him, “The truth of the matter is that, one of the major problems in the polity today, is a section of the media. These are people who cannot just believe that the Labour Party or the opposition did not win the election. They convinced themselves that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will lose the election.

He further said his statement was unambiguous and it was wrong for any media platform to have twisted it, to serve its own interest. He added that the media has a way of twisting whatever you have said to what they want it to look like.

The minister explained that what he said was that during the election, there was a technical glitch and as a result of this and for INEC to protect the data, it suspended uploading of the results.

INEC immediately set up a technical team to look into what went wrong and simultaneously floated another platform, he said.

“Of course,Premium Times has its own agenda, Lai Mohammed added.

“They inserted the word “deliberately” and omitted the phrase that it was in order to protect the sanctity of the data. They make it look like INEC deliberately refused to upload the results’. He said.

Lai Mohammed emphasized that the publication was a most irresponsible way to practice journalism.