The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, on Wednesday distanced himself from the report credited to him that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deliberately withheld the real-time upload of presidential election results from polling units.
According to Mohammed, the report was twisted by some online platforms to serve their interests.
The minister, while speaking in Washington DC, said his statement was twisted by people who did not believe the Labour Party (LP) or opposition lost in the presidential election.
He noted that what he said during an interaction with newsmen in Washington, DC, was that INEC had a technical glitch and as a result of this, the electoral body in a move to protect the data suspended uploading of the results.
Mohammed said, “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.”
Mohammed added: “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 to look like INEC deliberately refused to upload the results.”
