Casino Pages Found on INEC's Official Website Spark Election Security Fears

A Startling Discovery

The official website of the Independent National Electoral Commission hosted dozens of gambling and casino related articles, raising fresh concerns about the security of the electoral body's digital infrastructure ahead of the 2027 general elections. The discovery was made by X user Martin Uwakwe, known for analysing public sector digital infrastructure and government websites, who said he found roughly 28 gambling and casino pages published directly under INEC's domain rather than as external links. One identified page carried the address "inecnigeria.org/discover-the-excitement-of-instant-casino-france." Premium Times reviewed the archived links and confirmed the pages had indeed been published and hosted on INEC's website before being taken down.

Questions Over Access

Most of the pages were published under the WordPress author name "Ajuma Achor," a name Uwakwe linked to a former employee of Interra Networks, a technology vendor that had worked on INEC's website. Although the pages have since been deleted from the live site, they remain preserved on the Wayback Machine. Uwakwe offered two possible explanations: that INEC's website had been compromised for some time without detection, or that someone with legitimate access was abusing it, potentially for paid search engine placements. He called for an independent audit of INEC's technical infrastructure to determine exactly who currently holds publishing access.

The Bigger Worry

Uwakwe argued the real concern extends beyond gambling content. If unauthorised publishing could occur unnoticed, he asked, what would stop the same access from being used on election day to post false results or misleading announcements capable of triggering nationwide confusion. He noted this discovery was separate from a vulnerability he had separately and privately flagged to INEC in its Result Viewing Portal (IReV), which he said went unacknowledged for three days before the commission's ICT director eventually responded with steps being taken to fix it.

INEC's Silence

Premium Times contacted INEC spokesperson Mohammed Haruna by phone and WhatsApp seeking clarification on the casino pages, the "Ajuma Achor" account, who currently has publishing access, and whether a security audit was planned. As of filing, INEC had not responded. The casino pages have been removed from the live website, but their existence in archived records leaves the incident traceable and the underlying access questions unresolved.