I did not say INEC “deliberately withheld uploading” election results – Lai Mohammed

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed says, “it is irresponsible and reckless” the online report credited to him that INEC deliberately withheld the real-time upload of presidential election results from polling units.

The minister made the clarification on Wednesday in Washington DC, while reacting to the report published in some online platforms.

He said the report was a deliberate falsehood, twisted by the online platforms to serve their selfish interests.

“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 belief that the Labour Party or the opposition did not win the election.

“They convinced themselves that the All Progressives Congress (APC) will loose 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,” he said.

The minister said his statement was unambiguous and it was wrong for any media platform to have twisted it, to serve its own interest.

”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,” he said.

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’.

Mohammed reiterated that the publication was a most irresponsible way to practice journalism.