FG probes Cambridge Analytica’s ‘link to PDP’

The federal government has set up a committee to investigate the activities of the data mining firm, Cambridge Analytica, during Nigeria’s general election in 2007 and 2015.

The committee is to find out whether Cambridge Analytica’s worked for the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in 2007 and 2015 elections campaigns.

The Cambridge Analytica was alleged to have swiped the data of more than 50 million Facebook users to sway elections in many countries including Nigeria, where it waged a campaign to hack into personal records of the then leading opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

A presidency source confirmed this development to state house correspondents in Abuja on Sunday.

The source said the outcome of the committee report would determine if the government would appoint a special investigator and possibly, commence criminal prosecutions.

A whistleblower, Christopher Wylie, who worked with a Cambridge University academic to obtain the data, told the Observer, a UK newspaper, that: “We exploited Facebook to harvest millions of people’s profiles and built models to exploit what we knew about them and target their inner demons. That was the basis the entire company was built on.”

Cambridge Analytica, according to the reports, worked with Israeli hackers who were instructed to get dirt on Buhari during the presidential campaign.

According to those reports, SCL Elections, a public relations firm that later became Cambridge Analytica, manipulated Nigeria’s 2007 by organising campaigns to weaken the chances of opposition parties.

“As part of its engagement, the company organised anti-election rallies to demoralise opposition supporters from voting in the elections, which saw the emergence of Umar Yar’Adua as Nigeria’s president,” the source said.

“The Cambridge Analytica team came up with a video to portray candidate Buhari as a leader who would enforce Sharia Law in Nigeria. It was intended to sway the minds of millions of Nigerians and vote for the PDP candidate.

“Currently, the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook are the focus of an inquiry into data and politics by the British Information Commissioner’s Office, the United States Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

“Separately, the U K Electoral Commission is also investigating what role Cambridge Analytica played in the EU referendum.”

When contacted, Garba Shehu, senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity, said he had not been briefed on the issue.

He, however, said Nigerians deserved answers immediately from the PDP administration, Facebook and Cambridge Analytica on how and why they improperly obtained and used data to interfere in Nigeria’s elections.

He said an investigation should help to determine if there was a linkage between the various killings and maimings that had characterised previous elections since 2007 and the misinformation activities of the Cambridge Analytica (CA) data flows.

“It will also help President Buhari achieve his wish to leave a legacy of improved elections,’’ he said.