The Minister of Culture and Information, Lai Mohammed, has denied saying that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately withheld the real-time upload of the 2023 election results.
On Tuesday, various media outlets reported that the minister who is in Washington DC said that the electoral body deliberately stopped the real-time upload of the poll results.
The above sparked controversy, with Mohammed clarifying what he said in an update on Wednesday.
He stated that what he said was that a technical glitch made INEC suspend uploading the results, adding that Premium Times, one of the outlets that reported something else, has its own agenda.
“This is irresponsible and reckless journalism.
“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.
“As a result of this, there is nothing you want to say or do, they will find a way to twist it and make it what they want it to look like.
“What I 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.
“Of course, Premium Times has its own agenda.
“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”, Mohammed said
