According to Nigeria's information minister, Lai Mohammed, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) purposely withheld the real-time uploading of presidential election results from polling units due to a suspected cyberattack. He stated that INEC made the decision to maintain the integrity of the data.

However, his statement contradicts what INEC told Nigerians a day after the February 25th election, claiming that its failure to upload results was due to technical difficulties and not sabotage or a cyberattack.

Opposition candidates challenging the election results are using INEC's inability to upload results in real-time as one of their bases for the challenge.

During his official engagements with international media organizations in Washington DC, Mohammed gave the government's position, stating that the controversy was unnecessary and based on the opposition's ignorance of the functions of IReV. He added that under Nigerian laws, the management of election results is manual, and INEC has the exclusive right to determine the mode of election, its collation, and transmission.

Mohammed explained that INEC, after observing that the results of the presidential election were not being viewed, suspected cyberattack and withheld the uploading of the results to preserve the data's integrity.

INEC, according to him, proceeded to float an alternative platform while asking technicians to investigate what happened to its original portal. It took until 9 p.m. for the alternative portal to start working, and as soon as the original portal began working, the results were viewed from both platforms.

Four of Nigeria's 18 political parties are currently contesting the presidential election results in court, alleging INEC's failure to upload them on its portal, IReV, and other irregularities, affected their chances of winning.