The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) claims the alleged partisan tweet of its chairman, Joash Amupitan, is aimed at discrediting him and weakening the credibility of the electoral body.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Lawrence Bayode, stated this during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Tuesday.
“The agenda is just to discredit Prof. Joash Amupitan; that’s just the agenda so that they can discredit the work of the commission,” he said on the breakfast show.
READ ALSO: X Account Allegedly Linked To Amupitan Clear Case Of Digital Impersonation — INEC
Bayode’s comment came after an alleged post by the INEC chairman expressing support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the 2023 general elections.
The development has sparked reactions from netizens and opposition parties who have called for the resignation of the INEC chairman.
The ICT director, however, said a forensic report showed that the alleged tweet was “fabricated”.
“The last time I came on this programme, I said we would not base our conclusion on a screenshot. What you have seen on the screenshot shows that the post was made in 2023, but that is not what the forensic report is saying; that is fabricated.”
He noted that on April 10, 2026, another account was created in that same username, @joashamupitan, of the alleged tweet in 2023
“The account is still there. It cannot be brought down because of the investigation that is still ongoing,” Bayode said.
“Like I said, the National Cybercrime Centre (NCCC) will need to do a thorough job too to come out with the facts. What the forensic expert has done is to use open-source intelligence to bring out some of these facts.”
The INEC ICT head stated that when the Nigerian Police Force and NCCC do their jobs well.
“It will dab the tension,” he said.
Bayode, who was on the show last week, explained that the issue appeared to be more than it seemed, suggesting that it could be a case of digital impersonation.
“That account was renamed; the content there, maybe, would have been manipulated again.
He also spoke about how digital impersonation and content manipulation can ‘mislead the public’.
“I think all these are in the public domain, so anyone who wants to create havoc can use all of this information and use it as they will,” Bayode added.
He also claimed X’s artificial intelligence, Grok, can hallucinate.
