by Kolapo Olapoju

Reacting to widespread accusation of bias, the management of Daar Communications owners of African Independent Television (AIT), has issued a release claiming that supporters of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Muhammadu Buhari, rigged its online presidential poll.

On Tuesday, January 27, while Buhari was in the clear lead of 71% to President Goodluck Jonathan’s 21%, AIT pulled the poll from its website.

As soon as the poll was taken down, social media, political commentators, and the media went on overdrive with different theories to explain what could have led to the abrupt removal of the poll.

However, in a statement released on Thursday, January 29, the Television station’s management said a forensic test of the votes polled revealed that several of Buhari’s supporters were voting multiple times.

The statement said: “Suspicions that the poll was compromised where (were) first muted when it emerged the number of unique IP addresses was significantly less than the number of votes polled. This suggested that some pollers were able to vote multiple times.”

“A forensic test of the votes polled after the website was shut down further revealed that 30 identified unique IP-addresses had voted a total of 4969 times in favour of General Mohammed (Muhammadu) Buhari.”

“Furthermore a software application that incrementally changes the IP-addresses was discovered to be used in the voting process in favour of General Mohammed Buhari and the APC political party. Daar Communications Plc is presently seeking legal advise amid privacy concerns about releasing the raw CSV files on its www.aitonline.tv website for interested Nigerians to independently verify the integrity of the online poll.”

“The management of Daar Communications Plc determined this afternoon to make this information publicly available to protect its integrity amid accusations of bias promoted in some websites as well as on social media. The management further stated that ait remains committed to providing transparent bipartisan coverage of local and international news within the confines of best practice. The media and members of the public shall be updated as more information becomes available,” Daar Communications added.