Master Riggers! DSS exposes APC plans to rig 2015 elections. Confiscates cloned PVC cards and hacking accessories from APC data centre

#APCRiggersOfTomorrow!  DSS exposes APC plans to rig 2015 elections. Confiscates cloned PVC cards and hacking accessories from APC data centre

The Department for State Security Services (DSS) on Wednesday displayed cloned Permanent Voters Card (PVC) allegedly produced by the All Progressive Congress (APC) in readiness to rig the the February 2015 elections.

The APC was also said to have clandestinely registered under aged voters, babies, infants and even security operatives as well as foreigners as its members at a building in no 10, Bola Ajibola street, Ikeja, Lagos state.

At a press briefing, spokesperson of the DSS, Marilyn Ogar said that all arrested suspects have been chaged to court while investigation is still ongoing to get to the root of the matter and bring all culprits to book.

“A building located at No. 10, Bola Ajibola Street, Ikeja, Lagos, was being used for cloning of INEC Permanent Voters Card (PVC) by some unscrupulous persons with intent to hack into INEC database, corrupt it and replace same with their own data;

“That upon receiving the said report, the Service immediately took appropriate steps to investigate same by first seeking and obtaining a search warrant as required by law. This is contrary to claims by the APC that the building was accessed illegally. On arriving at the building at No. 10, Bola Ajibola Street, Ikeja, Lagos, Officers of this Service found that the building did not have the signpost, banner or flag of any company or political party;

“In the course of investigation, the following discoveries were made: A temporary Voters Card; A Permanent Voters Card; In one of the hard drives is a video of twenty-one (21) hacking tutorials. The tutorial video focused on the following areas:

“‎How to become a hacker and steps to take to avoid detection in the process of hacking web servers;

Steps and procedures of system hacking, passwords cracking, decrypting, escalating access privileges, and creating backdoors to servers;

“It also explicitly explained how to evade security of databases such as Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), firewalls, and other measures put in place to deter hackers;

“‎The video outlined ways to identify vulnerabilities in systems and how to surreptitiously drop a USB flash drive in a target establishment, which when plugged into any computer, transmits malicious codes enough to gain access into and compromise the entire system of the target organization; and

“Finally, the video explains how to hack into the systems of media houses, with the aim of broadcasting fake stories or headlines.

“It was also discovered that the APC registered under-aged persons including several infants and babies as members of the party. We know that Article 9.1 of the APC Party Constitution expressly says: “membership of the party shall be open to any citizen of Nigeria who has attained the age

of eighteen (18) years and accepts the aims and objectives of the Party…”

“Similarly, the APC registered several security personnel from the Nigerian Army (NA), the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) among others, in their uniforms as members of the

party;

“Furthermore the APC had multiple registrations of individuals in multiples of 16, 12, and 10; Several foreigners were also registered as its members;

“Also, the APC filled forms without passport photographs, and have books containing names of people with their phone numbers; Equally discovered were several envelopes containing passport photographs of various individuals;

"From the foregoing, we suspect that there was an elaborate and well articulated plan to inflate the Party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country.

‎”Facts are sacred and opinion free. The arrested suspects have since been charged to Court, and at the moment investigation is still ongoing. We shall update the public of further developments. ” Ogar said.

Meanwhile, the APC has lamely refuted the DSS claims. The party dismissed as hogwash the position of the Directorate of State Security after its raid on the party’s offices in Lagos, describing the DSS “findings”, presented to the media by the agency on Wednesday, as “a great disservice to Nigeria and an embarrassment to all intelligence-gathering organisations around the world.”

In a statement in Abuja on Wednesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party also alleged that the timing of the release of the findings was a plot orchestrated in collusion with the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to distract the APC from its ongoing campaigns for next month’s elections.

It described as “disingenuous, flimsy, premeditated, partisan and an irritant” the DSS premise that the APC had an ”articulated plan to inflate the party’s membership data as well as hack into INEC’s voter registration database through the creation of party membership forms and cards to match INEC’s voters register across the country.”

The APC said, ”First, the DSS and the PDP said the APC was cloning Permanent Voter Cards at the raided office, without a shred of evidence. Now, after a ‘painstaking’ investigation, the DSS has found out that the APC was only planning to inflate its membership data and then hack into INEC’s database. And this is the outcome of its massive, months-long investigations?

”This would have been funny if it were not from a primary domestic intelligence agency saddled with a great responsibility. Can this wish-washy report stand any serious scrutiny? Can any serious intelligence gathering agency anywhere else in the world take this report seriously?

“With these kind of findings, one can now understand why Boko Haram has continued to strike at times and places of its own choosing without any prior knowledge by our all-powerful DSS.

”Even the presentation of the report by a poorly-trained and highly-politicised spokesperson of the DSS worsened the so-called findings. Why would the spokesperson for a national agency sound like a megaphone for the ruling party, freely castigating the opposition spokesman and ”a number of uninformed members of the public”? Why does she have to go personal in presenting a report that supposedly is in the national interest? ”We have always warned that our democracy is in clear and present danger, not just from desperate politicians, but also from institutions of state that have compromised in their roles and resorted to crass lawlessness.

The DSS’ findings today have given us another reason to repeat this warning.

”While we are willing to meet the DSS in court, we can confidently say that the ‘confessions’ extracted from the arrested persons, after they were subjected to incredible acts of torture, cannot even stand in any court of law.”

-Point Blank