The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday said that a forensic probe has shown that the allegation that its Chairman, Joash Amupitan, operates an X (formerly Twitter) account and made a partisan post is a case of digital impersonation.
In a statement issued on Monday, the electoral body said it subjected the viral claim—circulated through screenshots on social media—to a comprehensive forensic investigation, including an independent review by a cybersecurity expert.
The probe, it said, deployed X platform data, internet archive records, OSINT tools, identity forensics, and cross-platform analysis.
INEC said the findings showed that Amupitan does not operate any personal X account, stressing that all posts attributed to him are “fraudulent, forensically unverifiable, technically impossible, and part of a coordinated disinformation.”
Among the key findings, the commission noted that the disputed account, @joashamupitan, was created in September 2022 but had no linkage to the chairman’s verified email addresses.
It added that timestamp analysis exposed inconsistencies, including an alleged 2026 reply—“Victory is sure”—which appeared 13 minutes before the original post it purportedly responded to.
The commission further stated that searches on the Wayback Machine showed no record of the account prior to April 2026, while the alleged reply was absent from both live and archived threads.
‘Damage-Control Tactic’
INEC also pointed to what it described as a suspicious sequence of events on April 10, 2026—the same day the screenshots went viral.
According to the Commission, the account was immediately renamed to @sundayvibe00, set to private, and labelled as a parody.
“This is clearly a damage-control tactic by an impersonator seeking to eliminate a digital trail. The self-application of the ‘Parody’ label is particularly notable. It constitutes an implicit admission that the account was never Prof. Amupitan’s genuine personal account,” the statement signed by the chairman’s media aide, Adedayo Oketola, partly read.
The commission further added that at least seven fake Facebook and Instagram accounts using Amupitan’s name and photographs were identified, suggesting “a sustained and coordinated impersonation operation”.
