INITS: 3 Facts About IT Firm Accused Of Creating ‘INEC Server’

INITS Limited, a Lagos-based IT firm, was on Monday accused of helping the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) develop an alleged server used in receiving electronically transmitted results in Nigeria’s 2019 presidential election.

The allegation, which has been denied by INITS’ Chief Technology Officer, Femi Taiwo, was made by former presidential aide, Reno Omokri.

Recall that the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, had claimed to have retrieved the original result of the February 23, 2019, election from the supposed INEC server. Atiku claimed the result he obtained from the server showed that he defeated President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by over 1.6 million votes, against INEC’s declaration that Buhari won the poll.

The PDP and its candidate, Atiku, are presently challenging INEC’s declaration of Buhari as the winner of the election at the Presidential Election. They have been attempting to prove to the tribunal that the electoral body used a server where results where electronically transmitted into after the polls.

IINEC’s counsel, Yunus Usman, had filed a counter affidavit at the tribunal, saying “They are asking us to bring something we do not have,” referring to Atiku’s request to inspect the sever.

But some ad-hoc staff used by INEC during the election have testified for Atiku before tribunal that the electoral body trained them to transmit results of the presidential poll into the supposed server electronically.

THE WHISTLER, following Omokri’s allegations that INITS Limited created the server in contention, carried out some checks on the IT firm.

Below are some of our findings.

1.      Femi Taiwo Founded INITS Limited In 2009

Taiwo founded INITS in 2009 to take on software programming projects. The firm has over the years worked with Google, INEC Nigeria, Lagos State Government, 9-Mobile, Dangote Foundation and a host other Nigerian and foreign firms.

2.    The Software INEC Uses For Elections Was Built For Free By INITS

Taiwo revealed in a 2016 article published in The Guardian that the software being used by INEC to conduct elections in Nigeria was built “for free” by INITS. He claimed to have “offered this software free of charge to INEC at a time when people were making billions of Naira from other government contracts,” adding that “decided to do it because it is second nature for him to solve problems.”

3.     INITS Wants To Help FG Build A Database For Accurate Demographic Data

INITS wants an opportunity to help the Federal Government build a database for accurate demographic data on Nigerians.

Taiwo said the in the article: “We were discussing the next national census on Twitter recently and asked why the INEC database powered by Femi’s software could not become the basis for an early effort to help government and the private sector tackle the problem of getting accurate demographic data for planning purposes? There are a lot of databases lying around that could be interfaced and aggregated to give a clearer picture of our numbers. We don’t have to wait for a crisis before building something similar to Ushahidi in Kenya.”