From David Onuoja, Abuja
A forensic investigation commissioned by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has concluded that Professor Joash Amupitan, SAN, does not operate a personal X account, and that viral posts attributed to him were fabricated as part of a coordinated disinformation campaign.
The findings were released in a public statement signed and issued yesterday (Monday), by Adedayo Oketola, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, prof. Joash Amupitan.
The controversy began on April 10, 2026, when screenshots circulated online alleged that Prof. Amupitan, using the handle @joashamupitan, posted a partisan reply, “Victory is sure”, to another user @dayoisreal. Additional images soon appeared purporting to link him to the account via email, phone number, OPay and BVN data, and breached records. The claims spread rapidly across traditional and online media as supposed corroboration.
Prof. Amupitan’s office immediately denied the claims, stating he had never owned or operated an X account. INEC then pledged a full forensic probe and engaged an independent cybersecurity expert. The expert’s multi-layered review included X platform data, Internet Archive records, OSINT tools, identity forensics and cross-platform analysis to test every alleged linkage.
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The report’s key findings dismantle the claims. Forensic timestamp analysis showed the alleged “Victory is sure” reply was dated 13 minutes before @dayoisreal’s original post existed, a technical impossibility on any digital platform. The Wayback Machine holds zero captures of @joashamupitan or the disputed post before April 2026, and live X platform checks confirmed the reply does not exist in @dayoisreal’s thread. Account recovery tests also failed to link Prof. Amupitan’s known Yahoo or Unijos emails and phone number to the disputed account.
The statement added that the Investigators further traced the account’s behavior. Created in September 2022, the handle @joashamupitan was renamed to @sundayvibe00 on April 10, 2026, the same day the screenshots went viral. It was then set to private and labelled “Parody Account.”
The handle is now held by Coy Emerald, a verified cybersecurity researcher who reclaimed it through OSINT practice and disclaimed any affiliation with its prior user. At least seven fake Facebook and Instagram accounts using Prof. Amupitan’s name and photos were also identified, pointing to a broader impersonation effort.
The report therefore, dismissed the circulated OPay, BVN, and data-breach documents as misleading. While they confirmed Prof. Amupitan owns the referenced phone number and email, forensic tests found no technical connection between those identifiers and the X account. Breached datasets referencing usernames like “amupitanr” and “amupitanj” from 2016–2021 predated the disputed account and did not specify any X handle, meaning they cannot prove ownership or control.
Also in the statement, INEC said the case has been referred to law enforcement agencies under Nigeria’s Cybercrimes Act to trace and prosecute those behind the fabricated content.
The commission urged the public and media to verify social media claims through official channels only, citing the rise of generative AI and deepfakes. All official INEC communications, it reiterated, come exclusively through its website, verified @inecnigeria handle, official Facebook page, http://www.inecnews.com, and formal press statements from its Abuja headquarters.
