The Police have in Katsina State have paraded and detained at least 15 party agents suspected of plotting to hack into the Presidential and National Assembly elections results portal. 

The Public Relations Officer of the Katsina State Police Command,  SP Gambo, disclosed this to reporters at the State Police Command Headquarters on Friday evening.

He explained that the suspects were arrested with several electronic gadgets, laptop computers, and other tools.

The Police are conducting an investigation into the case and the outcome of the probe will be made public, he said.

“We don’t want to jump the gun. We invited experts and they are doing their work to see the system to ascertain actually what is in the place because of its sensitivity,” he said.

The former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, has argued that hacking the database of the electoral commission is possible, but the incumbent, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu said they are aware of attempts to do so, but the commission’s Engineers are equal to the task.

Jega speaking on Trust TV on issues surrounding the preparedness of INEC ahead of the Saturday polls and issues regarding elections in the country.

For the 2023 general elections, INEC has introduced a novel tool, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

BVAS is an electronic device designed to read Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters – using the voters’ fingerprints – in order to prove that they are eligible to vote at a particular polling unit.

The device will also be used to automatically send the number of verified voters for each polling unit, directly to the INEC database.

Commenting on the effectiveness of BVAS, the former INEC chairman commended the level of preparedness by the electoral body, but said he could not guarantee that the commission’s database can’t be hacked.

He said, “You see, in this modern age, nobody can give you 100 per cent assurance that a database cannot be hacked, unless the database is not online”.