The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that a forensic investigation has confirmed that a controversial social media account allegedly linked to its Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN) was fabricated.

In a statement released on Monday, the commission said an independent digital analysis uncovered multiple irregularities, including impossible timestamp sequences, absence of verifiable archival data, and clear signs of identity manipulation. INEC described the findings as evidence of a coordinated disinformation effort.

According to the report, a key discovery involved inconsistencies in the timing of posts. The original post by user @dayoisreal was published at 15:18:20 GMT (4:18 p.m. Nigerian time) in 2023. However, the alleged reply from the account bearing Amupitan’s name, which read “Victory is sure,” was timestamped 13 minutes before the original post was made.

INEC emphasized that it is not technically possible for a reply to precede the original post on any legitimate platform, describing the anomaly as definitive proof that the account and its content were manipulated, likely using artificial intelligence tools.

The commission reiterated its commitment to safeguarding the integrity of public information and warned against the spread of digitally fabricated content aimed at misleading the public.