Reactions have trailed the outcome of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s forensic investigation, which exonerated its Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, from an alleged partisan social media post.
On Monday, Amupitan’s Chief Press Secretary, Adedayo Oketola, claimed his boss was innocent of the allegation.
According to Oketola, the partisan social media post was “fabricated, technically impossible and part of a coordinated disinformation” against Amupitan.
The INEC came under fire early April over the alleged 2023 X (formerly Twitter) post showing partisan support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the last general election.
Screenshots circulating online depicted an account @joashamupitan responding “Victory is sure” to APC’s Youth Leader’s claim of winning an “Igbo-dominated” polling unit for the ruling party. Other tweets in support of President Bola Tinubu and criticism of supporters of the then Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, also surfaced online.
INEC’s ICT Director, Lawrence Bayode, described the tweets as fabricated to undermine Amupitan.
The electoral umpire also claimed that its “forensic analysis” showed the account was created on April 10, 2026.
It also maintained Amupitan has no X presence, urging the public to ignore the “malicious” fabrication while police and cybercrime probes continue.
But reacting, a social entrepreneur and Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative (PIN), Gbenga Sesan, said INEC’S denial of the alleged partisan posts “falls flat on its face”.
He wrote, “Point #1 (“Technical Profile of the X Account Under Investigation”): The current occupant of the Twitter handle that they refer to as “a verified cybersecurity researcher” is an APC apologist. Coy Emerald (whose real name is abbreviated O.Y.O.) is affiliated with a certain “Jagaban Army” and has worked for the National IT Agency and the Nigeria Police Force. The “independent investigation” says that the renaming and parody pattern is a damage control tactic by an impersonator, but I already flagged this as a possible insider job by those who would deliberately muddy the waters. They could deliberately create multiple accounts, including one in the original name of the INEC Chair, to overshadow the disputed name. One of the new X accounts, @joashamupitan, was created this month and is verified, even though INEC insiders have claimed it is not official.
“Point #2 (“Forensic Evidence Disproves the Claims by the Imposters and Maligned Actors”): Now that new accounts have been created with the same username, the newly associated eMail is what will show up when you try to link an eMail or a phone number with the disputed account. Who benefits from this being the case?
Point #3 (“The Wayback Machine: Definite Proof of Account Fabrication”): The Wayback Machine does not capture everything. No web crawler captures everything including tweets and their replies. I hope INEC has not paid the “independent forensic expert” who claims this crawler presents a “definite proof of account fabrication” in full because s/he doesn’t deserve her/his balance.
“Point #4 (“Timestamp Analysis: The Reply That Cannot Exist”): The attempt at using a timestamp to invalidate the “victory is sure” reply falls flat on its face because the tweet by @dayoisrael was EDITED! It’s right there: “Last edited 4:18 PM · Mar 18, 2023”. If you say the reply was made 13 minutes before the tweet that was being replied to, how do you prove that the original tweet that was edited at 4:18pm was not originally posted before 4:05pm? “Cannot” is not a word that an expert would use in this case.
“Point #5 (“Live Platform Verification”): The attempt to suggest that not finding the “victory is sure” reply on Twitter means it never existed is lazy, to say the least and believe the best! As an interested party, the author of the original tweet could hide replies to his tweet. Similarly, anyone who posts a reply is able to delete it. If this were impersonation by someone who wishes to malign or implicate the INEC Chair, why would they delete the tweet? If the account was managed by the INEC Chair or his aides, would there be any motive to delete the reply in order to make this claim? You don’t need an “independent forensic expert” label to answer that question.
“Point #6 (“Broader Disinformation Campaign”): On the last point of a broader disinformation campaign, a quick tip for Prof and his aides: look in the mirror. Your attempt to mute valid questions and invalidate genuine concerns is quite worrying, considering the history of Nigeria’s elections and the amount of gaslighting that citizens have had to endure at the hands of the people who appointed the current INEC Chair.”
Also, an X user, @Urchila01, shared screenshots to counter INEC’s claim that the alleged partisan tweet attributed to Amiputan was posted before the APC youth leader’s post.
The X user wrote, “This blatant lie of a statement falls flat on its face in the face of just a little scrutiny.
“The 2nd frame shows that the post by @dayoisrael at 16:18 on the 18th of March 2023 was the edited version of the original post
“Frame 3 shows that the original post was made at 16:02 on the 18th of March, 2023, 16 minutes before it was edited at 16:18 on the 18th of March, 2023
“The 4th frame shows that Prof. Amupitan’s reply was at 16:05 on the 18th of March 2023, which was to the original post made by @dayoisrael at 16:02 on the 18th of March, 2023.
“This shows that the @inecnigeria chairman, Prof. Amupitan, replied to Dayo Israel @dayoisrael 3 minutes AFTER @dayoisrael made the original post, which @dayoisrael edited at 16:18 on the 18th of March, 2023,16 minutes after his original post at 16:02 on the 18th of March, 2023, and 13 minutes after the INEC chairman, Prof. Amupitan, had replied to the original, now edited post, at 16:05 on the 19th of March, 2023.
“What this shows is that INEC @inecnigeria as led by Prof. Amupitan has gone extra mile to tamper with, and conceal evidence; and by so doing, have proven that they do not have any intention to conduct a free and fair general election I’m 2027.”
The X user called on Amupitan to resign.
