Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour Visits Obasanjo At Ota

 

Galaxy Backbone: We Blocked Over 200 Cyberattacks During General Election

 Muhammad Abubakar, managing director of Galaxy Backbone (GBB), says the federal government blocked over 200 cyberattacks during the presidential and national assembly elections.

Galaxy Backbone is an information and communications technology services provider, owned by the federal government.

Abubakar spoke on Tuesday at the opening session of a two-day ministerial training for GBB’s board members and management staff in Abuja.

“On the election day alone, we were able to block more than 200 attacks and the next day, the attacks geometrically increased to about 1.2 million and all were blocked from our own businesses,” he said.

This is the first time a government official would be talking about the attempts to hack into the INEC’s server during the last elections.

Political parties have alleged that there were attempts to manipulate the election results by hackers.

Before the election, INEC assured that its system for transmitting election results cannot be penetrated by hackers.

Also speaking at the event, Isa Pantami, minister of communication and digital economy, applauded GBB’s approach to digital infrastructural development while saving the cost of governance.

“In this training, I will be very much sincere with you to point out some areas where we need significant improvement,“ Pantami said.

“Training is key when it comes to improving our performance and at the same time training is key when it comes to our self-evaluation, self-judgement, self-assessment.

“We need to think out of the box to discover new areas for government revenue generation.

“We need to be proactive in our thinking, let us not maintain the same process every day when it comes to revenue generation.”

The training has the theme “Positioning the GBB Team for Effective Management and Leadership in the 4th Industrial Revolution”.

Olumide Oworu Set To Retire Desmond Elliot From Lagos House Of Assembly See Why

 

Kwankwaso Did Not Congratulate Tinubu — NNPP

 

The New Nigeria Peoples Party on Tuesday described as untrue reports that its presidential candidate, Rabiu Kwankwaso, congratulated the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, of the All Progressive Congress.

The NNPP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Agbo Major, said the presidential election was “grossly flawed, contentious and disputed.”

He said, “The report that Engr. Kwankwaso congratulated Tinubu was a figment of the fertile imagination of anti-democrats, political hirelings and fifth columnists leveraging on the popularity of the party’s presidential flag bearer.

“The NNPP rejects the outcome of the February 25 presidential election as it did not reflect the will, wish and mandate of the Nigerians who trooped out to vote but were disappointed by the failure of INEC to conduct credible and transparent elections and fulfil its promise to upload the polling units results to its portals which would have guaranteed the authenticity of the results and declaration of the winner of the presidential election.

“Sadly, the presidential poll turned out to be a charade as it failed to meet the expectation of Nigerians and the international community. NNPP was a target of these electoral robbers who wanted the status quo to remain, in place of the new and better Nigeria the party promised if voted into office.

“It is unthinkable that Kwankwaso would hastily congratulate Asiwaju Tinubu on his questionable mandate which other candidates also claimed they won and had approached the court to seek redress. All lovers of democracy, due process and rule of law will wait for the determination of the election petition in court.

“Until the court decides them one way or the other, it will be preposterous for NNPP that was rigged out in most of its strongholds across the country to concede defeat and congratulate INEC’s imposed ‘winner’.

“The mood of the nation since the electoral body mischievously declared Tinubu the ‘winner’ of the election clearly showed that it was justice juxtaposed, absolutely unacceptable to majority of Nigerians who desire and deserve a new Nigeria which only the NNPP can usher in March 11 is another date with destiny as Nigerians go to the polls to choose their governors and state legislators.

“It is yet another opportunity to vote for NNPP candidates for a better, greater and prosperous Nigeria. Join us to make it happen and experience a better life.”

INEC’s Application To Court To Reconfigure BVAS Raises Integrity Questions

 The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) decision to approach the Court of Appeal in Abuja, for an order varying the permission the court had previously granted the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP) to inspect materials used by the commission in the conduct of the February 25 presidential election has elicited questions about the integrity of the recently held poll.

INEC said the request was predicated on the need to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in the presidential election before deploying them for the March 11 governorship and state Houses of Assembly polls.

However, some IT experts who didn’t want their names in print were unanimous that granting the order would allow the electoral body to tamper with the evidence and compromise the pending litigations on the controversial poll and further worsen the credibility of the entire process.

The IT experts believe that INEC does not need to reconfigure the BVAS ahead of the gubernatorial and the states’ houses of assembly polls.

The presidential candidates of PDP, Atiku Abubakar, and LP, Peter Obi, had in their challenge of the outcome of the presidential election, recently, obtained the order of the court to inspect materials used in the conduct of the poll, including the BVAS.

INEC had declared candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu, winner of the presidential election, which was marred by technical challenges.

The controversial poll has been rejected by the two leading opposition parties and had been criticised by international observers and civil society organisations.

Tinubu, a former Lagos State governor, was said to have polled a total of 8,794,726 votes to defeat his closest rival and presidential candidate of PDP, Atiku, who scored 6,984,520 votes, and Peter Obi of LP, who polled 6,101,533 votes, in an election that INEC failed to ensure instantaneous transmission of results to its IReV at the conclusion of voting at polling units as originally planned for the 2023 general election.

Both Tinubu and Atiku won 12 states each, while Obi won 11 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The Court of Appeal presided by Justice Joseph Ikyegh had last Friday, while delivering ruling in two separate applications, permitted Atiku and Obi to inspect the said materials, which they intended to use in proving their allegations of non-compliance and rigging of the poll.

The appellate court, ruling in an ex parte application, permitted Atiku and Obi to inspect, “All the electoral materials used in the conduct of the election for the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria held on February 25, 2023.”

The court also permitted Atiku and Obi to do electronic scanning and/or make photocopies of Voter’s Registration and ballot papers used in the presidential election.

In addition, both Atiku and Obi were by the order permitted to, “Carryout digital forensic inspection of BVAS machines used for the conduct of the February 25” presidential election.

However, INEC, in a fresh application, which THISDAY learnt was filed over the weekend, asked the appellate court to vary the order so as to allow the electoral umpire reconfigure the BVAS for use in the March 11 governorship and Houses of Assembly elections.

According to a source in INEC, the application became necessary following an order restraining the commission from tampering with the information embedded in the BVAS machines until due inspection was conducted and Certified True Copies (CTC) issued to the applicants.

The source added that INEC needed sufficient time to reconfigure the BVAS to be used during this Saturday’s poll holding in the 36 states of the federation, excluding the FCT.

According to the source, considering the number of BVAS machines required to conduct the election across the states, INEC needs to reconfigure the BVAS used for the February 25 elections before deploying them to the various polling units.

The source said the technical team of the commission had to be deployed on time to start the reconfiguration of the devices, which had to be done one by one.

The source maintained that not varying the order could result to postponement of the March 11 elections.

Peters Mbah Erects Billboards Asking Enugu Obidients To Vote For Him

 

Lagos: Sanwo-Olu To Increase Salary Of Workers.

 The incumbent Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwoolu has promised Local government workers of a salary increase...

Lagos governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu addressing hundreds of local government workers on Monday at Alausa secretariat

Lagos to increase local govt workers’ salary
“No matter how small it is, we will top it.”

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has promised to “top” salaries of local government workers in the state.

The governor spoke during an interactive session with civil servants at the local government level on Monday at the Adeyemi Bayero Auditorium within the Alausa Secretariat, in Ikeja.

The development comes a few days before the governorship and House of Assembly elections.

“I as governor have promised to increase, no matter how small, the salary of the public servants,” he said.

“The market where the Alausa workers shop, that’s where you shop too. Your children go to the same school, you pay the same fare and all of us are from Lagos.

“I have told them and I have challenged them and we are trying to see how we adjust so that one is not higher than the other so that we don’t disenfranchise anybody. You are all my people, my staff, you are all my citizens and I need to take care of you.