The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has cancelled the results of its Dec 9, election and ordered for a re-run.
Its President, Mr Babagana Mohammed, who disclosed this at a news conference organised by the society on Thursday, in Abuja, said the society took the decision at its Annual General Meeting (AGM).
According to Mohammed, the decision to cancel the election, approved at the AGM, came about after the council discovered that the database of the society had been compromised.
“It is with great trepidation that I inform you that the 2021 NSE election on Dec. 9, was later discovered to have more flaws and criminal cyber breach.
“That we’re not available when the result was approved at the Annual General Meeting AGM.
“This unprecedented occurrence is threatening the integrity of our election process and the integrity of the Nigerian Society of Engineers locally and internationally.
“As a responsible president who swore to uphold the ethics and integrity of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, I have no option than to declare the election that was conducted on Dec. 9, 2021, cancelled.
“And, on behalf of the Council order a re-run of the election after provision of adequate security for the society’s database,” Muhammed said.
Muhammed said that according to records made available to him, 406 emails of members were harked and the number was increasing with the ongoing investigation, many of whom could not vote electronically and said this was unacceptable.
He said engineering as a profession was meant to solve problems and this challenge was one that society must solve in preparing the country for the larger national elections in 2023.
“Nigeria and the world is planning to go online, if engineers cannot conduct election online, then who can, what confidence do you want to give Nigerians? These are the issues at stake, it is an issue of integrity and we are saying No! We must get it right.
“Once engineers got it right every other person must get it right. We engaged NigComSat as our consultant in this activity and they have submitted a report, and they have confirmed the illegalities.
“NigComSat gave me a report that our system was harked, some votes came from nowhere under Zender.com, so, we want to establish this, that is already a criminal breach.
“It has been confirmed by NigComSat and our national committee that our system has been harked. NSE is a smaller Nigeria, if we cannot get it right in this house, nowhere will get it right.
“For us, the deputy president is already elected, the incoming president is already elected by the constitution in the last election so what we are now after is the new deputy president and the exco to run the affairs of the society in 2022.
“The incoming president is a done deal, we already have the person who will take over first January, no argument about that and no issue about his selection but the issue we now have is those that were selected on the last election, that Dec. 9.”
Muhammed, speaking on the modalities that would ensure that the re-run election would be credible said the deputy president is the president-elect would conduct the re-run with the election Commission, to elect qualified candidates for the remaining members of the exco.
On the consequences for those that had committed this electoral infraction, the outgoing president of the NSE said the laws of the land were clear on such crimes as cyber crimes.
“The laws in this country are very clear, this is Cybercrime, it’s not part of my society’s business, it’s a criminal activity and there are people who are responsible for charging criminal activities, the police, the DSS are there and we have written to them.
“We brought in the DSS and we are even going to bring in the police, cybercrime unit has to come in because we have to get to know who committed what, and what are the inputs of others.
“It’s not about who won, we want to know who could have benefited from this activity, we need to know how did he get to benefit from it. Even the person who is number two needs to know he is number two legally.
“For you to lose the election. You must lose election honourably that is what we are saying, you can’t lose an election that you don’t even understand how it was.
On how the re-run election would be conducted, the president said it would still be done by e-voting, adding that it was an engineering challenge that must be tackled headlong and not by going back to the analogue way of voting.
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‘We cannot give up because we are engineers, there are always challenges but there must be an engineering response to it. That is why we are engineers, it is to solve challenges.
“It has happened, am happy that it happened to us as a unit, not the whole country, because if it happened to the whole country, it will be a disaster.
“Let us now use it as a test run, in preparation for 2023, we are going to do the same e-voting but this time we are going to protect our database, we are going to protect our cyberspace that is how to go about it,” Muhammed said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Mr Babagana Muhammed will be ending his tenure as NSE president on Dec. 31, and Mr Tasiu Wudil will assume office as the next NSE president. (NAN)
