Skip to main content

Election Manipulation: Nigeria investigates Cambridge Analytica

                           Buhari campaigning
The government of Nigeria is scrutinising the reports of the data mining firm, Cambridge Analytica, which swiped the data of more than 50 million Facebook users to sway elections in many country including Nigeria, where it waged a campaign to perpetuate discord and hack into personal records of the then leading opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
A presidency source informed State House correspondents at the weekend that the federal government has set up an in-house committee to investigate whether Cambridge Analytica’s work for the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007 and 2015 general elections campaigns broke the laws of this country or infringed on the rights of other parties and their candidates. Depending on the outcome, this may lead to the appointment of a special investigator and possibly, criminal prosecutions by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami.
A whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, who worked with a Cambridge University academic to obtain the data, told the Observer, a UK newspaper that : “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles. And built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.”
Among those whose personal data was hacked into in 2015 was the then opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.
Cambridge Analytica, according to the reports, worked with Israeli hackers who were instructed to get dirt on Muhammadu Buhari during the presidential campaign.
According to those reports, SCL Elections, a public relations firm that later became Cambridge Analytica, manipulated Nigeria’s 2007 election by organising campaigns to weaken the chances of opposition parties.
As part of its engagement, the company organised “anti-election rallies” to demoralise opposition supporters from voting in the elections, which saw the emergence of Umar Yar’Adua as Nigeria’s president.
The Cambridge Analytica team came up with a video to portray candidate Buhari as a leader who would enforce Sharia Law in Nigeria. It was intended to sway the minds of millions of Nigerians and vote for the PDP candidate.
Currently, Cambridge Analytica and Facebook are the focus of an inquiry into data and politics by the British Information Commissioner’s Office, the United States Special Counsel Robert Mueller; and, separately, the UK Electoral Commission is also investigating what role Cambridge Analytica played in the EU referendum.
Contacted over the issue, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said that although he had not been briefed on the issue, Nigerians deserved answers immediately from the PDP administration, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on how and why they improperly obtained and used data to interfere in Nigerian elections.
He said an investigation should help to determine if there is a linkage between the various kilings and maimings that have characterised our elections since 2007 and the misinformation activities of the Cambridge Analytica (CA) data flows. It will also help President Buhari achieve his wish to leave a legacy of improved elections, he said.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Man cuts off his kinsman's penis over Ludo game argument

A father-of-six bled to death after one of his kinsmen cut off his penis following an argument. Mr. Sunday Ikwunyelu, aka A-Big, from Akpulu village, Ugbenu, in Awka North local government area of Anambra state, was killed by his relative Mr. Ifeanyi Eziechine over a ludo game. Ifeanyi reportedly hit Sunday with a heavy weapon, weakening him, then he cut off his genitals with a knife and Sunday bled to death. The wife of the deceased, Mrs. Maryrose Ikwunyelu narrated the incident that led to her husband’s sudden demise. She said: I was in front of my shop playing ludo game with one nurse Rebecca when Ifeanyi, who hap­pens to be my husband’s brother, joined us. He requested to be allowed to participate in the game but I declined on the ground that he often caused trouble each time he participated and lost out in the game. Sometimes, it would lead to wanton destruction of some items in my shop and the compound. It was on that note that he took offen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Police rescue young lady from the hands of ritualists in Delta State

Officers of the Delta State police command, on Thursday, rescued a lady from suspected kidnappers/ritualists in Asaba. The lady was said to be returning from Ogbegonogo market when she boarded their tricycle. Two other gang members later joined her from both sides, leaving her in the middle. Trouble, however, started when the rider refused to stop at the victim’s destination, forcing her to raise an alarm that attracted some policemen who gave them a hot chase and eventually rescued the girl and arrested the suspects. An eyewitness said one of them in a bid to disappear threw a ring suspected to be magic ring in his mouth and attempted to vanish but the Police diffused the charm.  Irate youths who gathered at the scene made efforts to go on jungle justice but the police prevented them.
Post a Comment
Read more

Law Enforcement Agency arrests 60 drug traffickers

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kogi on Friday said it had arrested 60 suspected drug traffickers and seized 976.2 kg illicit drugs between April and June. Alhaji Idris Bello, Commander, Kogi State Command of the agency, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lokoja. Bello said the arrested traffickers included 56 males and 4 females. “The command also seized 976.2 kilogrammes of various illicit drugs, with Indian hemp accounting for about 974.5 kg, within the period” he said. According to him, out of those arrested, four were upon prosecution convicted and sentenced to various jail terms. He added that 28 of the suspects were undergoing counseling while 28 others had been counseled and released. Bello said the 2018 UN International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26 was celebrated to enlighten the public on the dangers of hard drugs. Bello, however, said over 60 per cent of crime and cr...
Post a Comment
Read more