NBS claim of website hack strange, robs it of integrity, says Atiku
Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar has questioned the claim by the National Bureau of Statistics claiming its website was hacked.
A statement by Atiku on Wednesday described the reported hacking of the website as strange, especially because it is coming barely 24 hours after the release of a damning report about the escalation of kidnapping in the country.
The statement signed by Atiku’s media aide, Paul Ibe, said the reported hacking of the website, the first in the history of the NBS, robs the data emanating from the agency of integrity.
The statement reads: “The unprecedented claim that the website of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has been hacked is an unpleasant development that adds up to the bad tidings that have characterized the President Bola Tinubu administration.
“The development, which is coming on the heels of the recent data published on the website of the @NBS_Nigeria on Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS), underscores the credibility crisis of the current administration.
“These are strange times in Nigeria, and it is hoped that the situation at hand is not an underhand attempt to pigeonhole the integrity of data majorly used for planning and development and research purposes.
“Subjecting data and statistics such as those harvested, analysed, and released by the NBS to sexing up or political considerations is counterproductive.
“That is why the claim that the website of the National Bureau of Statistics was hacked into, the very first time in its history, should be of concern to the fidelity of the stats it releases to the public.
“Moreover, the coincidence of this so-called hack coming only shortly after the release of damning stats on security is suspicious.
“We may be tempted to assume that every stats released by the Bureau is an outcome of a hack!”