The Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Chairman, Prof. Joash Amuptian, has come under scrutiny over controversial Twitter (now X) account allegedly belonging to him.
Amupitan was alleged to have locked his X handle, which contained his past posts indicating his support for the All Progressives Congress (APC), amid calls for his removal.
The INEC Chairman had, since the commission’s de-recognition of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) leadership, come under fire as oppositions and several members of the public called for his resignation over alleged compromise.
Pictures of him paraded during ADC’s #SaveNigeria’sDemocracy protest earlier this week was edited with President Bola Tinubu’s famous cap with broken shackles symbol placed on his head as the opposition party alleged that he was a member of the ADC.
This would be followed on Friday with the X account saga as revealed in a post shared by a Kaduna-based ADC member, Nuhu Sada.
The former candidate for the Kaduna State House of Assembly shared a picture containing the said account which had allegedly been changed into a parody account with the handle @Sundayvibe00
An X user, as seen in the post, asked the platform’s AI bot, Grok, if the parody account is the same as the Amupitan’s locked account.
Grok confirmed the parody account to be that of INEC Chairman, stressing that the email address used by Amupitan in opening his X account matched that of the parody account.
The narrative had further been extended by the ADC Vanguard, the coalition mobilisation wing of the party, who dug up an old post of the APC National Youth Leader, Dayo Israel.
The APC leader had in the post, dated 18th of March 2023, announced the emergence of the ruling party as winner at his polling unit and seven other polling unit in the area.
Reacting with the now controversial X handle, Amupitan was alleged to commented with “Victory at last”- a comment considered to affirm claims of him being an APC campaigner before his appointment.
ADC Vanguard, in reaction to the old post, reiterated that the INEC Chairman has to resign.
“He has to resign. No two ways around it. #AmupitaMustResign Repost aggressively” The post read.
In said further prove of Amupitan’s connection to the denied X account, a social media influencer largely known by his X handle, @OurFavOnlineDoc, gave a breakdown of how the email and telephone number used in creating the controversial account were confirmed to belong to the INEC Chairman.
“For that X account @joashamupitan, which the INEC Chairman now denies, here is the email address used to open the account: it is amupitanj@yahoo.com.
:This is the same email address on the UniJos profile of the INEC Chairman. You can Google it (I have attached it for you anyway).
“If you go on X and try to log in with that email, then say you forgot the password and ask for the 2FA process to recover access to the account, X will give you various options for the 2FA process which includes a phone number ending in *99.
“On the inec chairman CV, which is publicly accessible, you will find this phone number there 08035074099.
“This number correlates with the 2FA number linked to that X account. If you want to confirm that the phone number belongs to him, try sending money to that number using Opay, the account holder name shows it is him. There is no further point denying this.” He wrote.
While the INEC Chairman is yet to formally address the public over the controversies, he had made series of posts in his newly verified official account, assuring Nigerians of his administration’s commitment to restoring voters’s trust in the electoral process.
“My succinct and irrecoverable priority is simple. As the chairman of INEC I will work ardently to restore your trust and protect your vote.
“I understand that many Nigerians have lost confidence in the electoral process, and I am committed to changing that experience through our strategies.” He wrote.
Amupitan, in another post called for stakeholders, citizens, and institutions’ collaboration with the commission in a bid to build a system where every votes count.
“That is the path forward for the Independent National Electoral Commission and the future of Nigeria. We will work with all stakeholders citizens, institutions, and political actors to strengthen trust in our electoral process.
“Democracy thrives when there is unity of purpose and a shared commitment to doing what is right.
“Together, we will build a system where every vote counts, every voice matters, and the will of the people is respected. We will get it right.” The post read.
