Ex-INEC Commissioner, Okoye, Speaks On 2023 Controversial IReV Glitch

Former National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Festus Okoye, has revealed that the commission experienced a technical challenge uploading polling unit-level presidential election results to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2023 general election.

Okoye said the problem became a crisis after efforts to resolve the technical challenge persisted, resulting in some electoral officers being beaten and injured.

Speaking in an interview shared by @Nigerialawyers, Okoye said the challenge specifically affected the uploading of presidential election results, noting that elections to the Senate and House of Representatives were also conducted on the same day.

He said, “The only challenge we had, looking back, was the challenge of uploading the unit-level presidential election results, which was critical.”

According to him, when reports emerged that presidential election results were not uploading, the INEC chairman sought assurances from the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) personnel that the problem would be fixed.

“Twenty minutes and then 20 minutes it became a crisis. Some of my electoral officers were crying, some of them were being beaten up, some of them were injured. So it became a crisis,” he said.

Okoye said the incident was caused by a malfunction in the technology, insisting that the problem was not adequately understood by some people.

“The technology malfunctioned. But people don’t believe that technology malfunctioned. That is the truth of the matter,” he said.

He further disclosed that he had asked officials to explain the problem to Nigerians in plain language after being told that there were difficulties uploading the presidential election results to IReV.

Okoye said a statement was prepared, but he objected to the technical language used in explaining the problem.

“I said no. I asked them, I said, all these things you have written, all these things you are saying is that we have challenges uploading presidential results into the IReV. They said yes. I said okay, let me tell Nigerians that we have challenge uploading presidential results,” he said.

He said the technical team insisted that the explanation should conform to the language and technical requirements of the technology involved.

Okoye maintained that the commission had prepared extensively for the election but was disappointed by the technical challenge that occurred on the day of the poll.

“For me, what happened was that there was technology disappointed us. And you see, it must leave for some of us that we prepared and prepared well,” he said.

Okoye added that INEC officials had been monitoring developments across the states and preparing for the election before the technical problem occurred.

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