Welcome, Guest: Register On Nairaland / LOGIN! / Trending / Recent / New
Stats: 3,150,460 members, 7,808,641 topics. Date: Thursday, 25 April 2024 at 02:40 PM

BluntNigerian's Posts

Nairaland Forum / BluntNigerian's Profile / BluntNigerian's Posts

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (of 39 pages)

Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 4:47pm On Jun 12, 2023
Dexy4yah:

He later picked and told me that the money will be paid tomorrow.
Try to reach him and verify


He didn't pay anything Ooo.

That man is full of lies.

I just cannot understand why he is doing this to me.
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 4:46pm On Jun 12, 2023
MrBrownJay1:


contact the person who sold you the goods and tell them that if you dont get your goods then he/she must pay you back for everything (goodsand waybill)...as they gave you this man's number, they are responsible for them. tell them to either bring the goods back to lagos WITH your 30K or you will report them to the police for fraud. what type of yeye scam are they playing?!
Now that the goods are closer to me, and then, the main driver who brought the goods had already gone back..

It is either the goods were released, or they remain in the store where the driver left it.
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 4:44pm On Jun 12, 2023
ajidikun:
Have you called the person that connected you to the driver? I feel he must have known and trusted the driver for him to connect you to him. This is bad for his business oooo.
I called the person that contacted me with the fake driver, and he said that he took some SOLDIERS and went over to the fake-driver’s house and arrested him, and that they also seized his car-keys and his phones..

**(But I guess those things he said were lies..
Because that was the same evening which I called the fake driver, and he picked-up and later started swearing with the name of God)**
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 4:37pm On Jun 12, 2023
Alonso91:
Funnily it will later be blamed on government...



BTW...why is the charges so high like dat? 30k to transport goods of 80k

Hope it's not worth I'm thinking Sha?




The goods we are talking about here, are 2-small-bales of clothes..
That's normally the amount to transport bales of clothes.
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 4:35pm On Jun 12, 2023
Sablexxxtoons:
Don't you have Gig logistics there?

AVECDEO:
If your own brother that you speak the same language and culture could be this mean to you I wonder what they will do to people from other tribes.

Is the goods contraband...why will it cost 30k to waybill a goods of 80k within Nigeria and customs involvement...please make it make sense.

Wealthoptulent:


Chai! Government/politicians no be our problem, na we we. Politicians are jus the reflection of we people, down mainstream.. dem jus dey rep our portray, this kind man go siddon read newspaper or listen news n go follo dey Curse Government! Or shouting ELLUU PEE, say one na SAINT OBI & OTHER Escobar abi? E pain me say this kind people no dey buy better phone wey get internet or dey on Whatsapp make we greet am for u. I will save the number n when next subscribe fr international call I go greet am too

Dexy4yah:
Some of this drivers are heartless...when it comes to waybill issues

He will pay the money when you give him deadline and threaten him with Alusi.


Cus is very obvious he doesn't want to pay the money...

Dexy4yah:

Have been calling him but the idiot is not picking.

Blake755:

I called him he just dey form he doesn't know me

MrBrownJay1:


contact the person who sold you the goods and tell them that if you dont get your goods then he/she must pay you back for everything (goodsand waybill)...as they gave you this man's number, they are responsible for them. tell them to either bring the goods back to lagos WITH your 30K or you will report them to the police for fraud. what type of yeye scam are they playing?!

Angrygoat:
Y u no use peace mass transit. Highest 5k

ajidikun:
Have you called the person that connected you to the driver? I feel he must have known and trusted the driver for him to connect you to him. This is bad for his business oooo.



**UPDATE

I later called the man on the 6th of June..
(Exactly One Month after I made the payment)..
And I told him to pay-up to those people, so that I can carry my load and settle my life..

He started accusing me that I went to report him to “My Prople”, and that they were calling him left-and-right, even at night, and that he couldn't sleep well again, just because of my little load which is not even big for anything...

He then started swearing with the name of God, and started telling me that he had paid everything that was to be paid to the transportation company, and that God will judge both me and him, if what I did to him was good.. That I didn't wait for him to settle the issue amicably before I rushed to go and report him..

I was so surprised that he was even saying such a thing.

I reminded him the exact name of the transportation company, and also told him that it was written on the Manifest that the waybill-charges for my load was not paid for, and that I must pay another N30k before I carry my goods.

He started pleading that there must have been a mix-up somewhere, and that he is going to go back to the park and rectify things with them.

I continued calling him every single day to know how far he had resolve the issues with the transportation company,

And up till this moment.,, he is still telling me that he is arguing issues with them....

He even pleaded that I should help him pay N10k, so that he can pay the remaining N20k...
AND I AGREED TO PAY OOOO...!!![/i]

YET UP TILL THIS VERY MOMENT, HE HAD NOT PAID ANYTHING..

I have not carried my goods yet.
This man is really causing too much trouble to my life..


NAIRALANDERS,, COME TO MY RESCUE ONCE MORE..
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 8:43pm On Jun 04, 2023
Wealthoptulent:


Chai! Government/politicians no be our problem, na we we. Politicians are jus the reflection of we people, down mainstream.. dem jus dey rep our portray, this kind man go siddon read newspaper or listen news n go follo dey Curse Government! Or shouting ELLUU PEE, say one na SAINT OBI & OTHER Escobar abi? E pain me say this kind people no dey buy better phone wey get internet or dey on Whatsapp make we greet am for u. I will save the number n when next subscribe fr international call I go greet am too
Thanks so much..

You're indeed a brother.
Thanks once again
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 8:41pm On Jun 04, 2023
AVECDEO:
If your own brother that you speak the same language and culture could be this mean to you I wonder what they will do to people from other tribes.

Is the goods contraband...why will it cost 30k to waybill a goods of 80k within Nigeria and customs involvement...please make it make sense.
I don't really know if bales of clothes are contraband in Nigeria..

But I had been receiving lots of bales from Lagos in the past.

Why is this very one causing me lots of trouble??

Please Please.. Just help me and reach to him. Someone's market is hanging for a month right now..
Tomorrow it will be exactly ONE MONTH I paid for this.. Thanks Goodness it is not a perishable good.
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 8:27pm On Jun 04, 2023
Dexy4yah:

He later picked and told me that the money will be paid tomorrow.
Try to reach him and verify
This very man in question is a big liar.
He had told me lots of lies already..
I cannot believe anything he says any longer..

Please, which time tomorrow did he say he would make the payment.??
And how would anybody believe that whatever he is said is true.??


Meanwhile..
Thanks so much for helping me out.
At least, he should know that I have people who are ready to help me and locate him if it becomes necessary..


..

From the look of things, he himself might not even be a driver,, but a middle-man who takes goods to drivers for delivery (without paying these drivers).

The name of the logistics he used was:
SUCCESS THRONE TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS..
(Thanni Olodo Street, by Young Shall Grow Motors, Jibowu Underbridge, Yaba Lagos)


I never intended naming this Logistics here...
But the man probably works there, or goes there often..

He is really bringing a very bad name to SUCCESS THRONE TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS..

1 Like

Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 8:24pm On Jun 04, 2023
Blake755:

I called him he just dey form he doesn't know me
He is a logistics person.
But he usually scam people with it.
I feel so used and cheated right now.

I even got to know that he had been doing this same thing to a lot of customers..
And these innocent people ended up paying the drivers on delivery, so that their goods won't be returned back..

1 Like

Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 8:21pm On Jun 04, 2023
Dexy4yah:

Have been calling him but the idiot is not picking.


Na Waa Oooo..
See me See wahalla ooo.!!
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 7:27pm On Jun 04, 2023
Dexy4yah:
Some of this drivers are heartless...when it comes to waybill issues

He will pay the money when you give him deadline and threaten him with Alusi.


Cus is very obvious he doesn't want to pay the money...


Can you help me by making a call to him..
Please.
Do this for me.
As a member of this Nairaland Community
Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 7:27pm On Jun 04, 2023
Sablexxxtoons:
Don't you have Gig logistics there?
There is GIG-Logistics.

But the person I bought the goods from opted for this man..
Reasons best known to him alone.


Please see if you can help me put this predicament by placing a call across to him.
I am in serious trouble.

1 Like

Crime / Re: A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 5:10pm On Jun 04, 2023
Lalasticlala,
Dominique,
Ishilove.
Crime / A Dubious Driver Duped Me Of N30,000; And Still Wants More Money From Me.. by BluntNigerian: 5:07pm On Jun 04, 2023
Good Day My dear fellow Nairalanders.

I am really Not feeling good today.

A certain logistics driver somewhere in Lagos is badly dulling my vibes.
And I am deeply heartbroken right now as I am typing this.

I would really love you guys to call him on phone and disturb him with your “Greetings” on my behalf, and tell him to settle my life abbegg, so that I can carry my small goods where his laziness and dubious character had kept it, so that I can go my way peacefully.

His name is Ukanwoke Enyinnaya.
And this is his phone number:
0-8-0-3 - 7-6-3 - 3-6-3-6.


He duped me of Thirty Thousand Naira (N30k) just to transport a small load which I bought for N80k

Now he is trying to make pay another N30k

I am now suffering for the criminality of another person.

Here below is the whole long story of how everything happened..

I bought goods that are worth N80k from a customer in Lagos on 4th-May (Thursday), and she linked me up with a driver that was supposed to bring the goods down to Awka (in Anambra State), with a Waybill charge of N30k; which I paid directly into the would-be driver's account.

After 2-weeks of unnecessary delay, I got a call from a totally different number belonging to a driver who was transporting the goods to Awka, and he was requesting that I should pay him N30k before I can carry my goods.

At first, I thought it was the supposed driver to whom I paid the N30k to.

So, I tried explaining to the driver that the waybill-charge of the goods had already been paid for, but he insisted that I must pay another N30k because no money was given to him when he took off from Lagos., that he picked up the goods on the basis of pay-on-delivery.

I tried finding out what he did with the N30k I already paid for the waybill of the goods, but he said that he didn't know what I was talking about.
That was when it dawned on me that I was communicating with a totally different driver.

When the new driver finally arrived Awka on Sunday, (21st-May), I went to meet him, and he still maintained that I am owing N30k, and he showed me a manifest to prove himself.

There-and-then, I contacted the other supposed driver to whom I paid N30k to explain things to him, then he pleaded with the new driver to release my goods to me, but he blatantly refused, and threatened to carry the goods back to Lagos.

The supposed driver pleaded that he would resolve the matter at the park manager’s office the next day (Monday 22nd-May), and that I must get my goods on Monday. But then the driver who carried the goods still insisted that he would return my goods to Lagos if I did not pay the additional N30k.

He then decided to go and drop the goods with a Logistics Company in Awka, who paid him the N30k and collected the goods from him and dismissed him.
Now, my goods are inside the Logistics Company in Awka, and they are requesting that I refund them the N30k they paid to the driver before I can collect my goods from them.

After I finished explaining to them that the waybill-charges had already been fully paid, they now contacted the supposed driver to whom I earlier paid the N30k to, for him to refund the N30k to them so they can release my goods to me.

He had even collected the account number of the Logistics Company several times, yet he had refused to make any payment to them.

He later called and pleaded with me, that I should assist in making part-payment of N10k so that he can complete the rest of the money; because Customs seized the goods along the way and they had to pay for some charges.
I accepted the reasons he gave and agreed to pay the N10k. But to my greatest surprise, he still refused to comply for almost ONE WEEK now..

I even threatened him with “Alụsi” (shrine), but he begged me to give him three days that he would rectify everything within three days.

The three days elapsed today, and I have not heard anything from him up till this very moment.

I don't know how else to make this driver to release this money so I can carry my goods.

He was definitely expecting me to pay another N30k just like that, so that it would be that I paid a total of N60k as waybill charges for goods of N80k.

It's really heartbreaking.



**UPDATE

I later called the man on the 6th of June..
(Exactly One Month after I made the payment)..
And I told him to pay-up to those people, so that I can carry my load and settle my life..

He started accusing me that I went to report him to “My Prople”, and that they were calling him left-and-right, even at night, and that he couldn't sleep well again, just because of my little load which is not even big for anything...

He then started swearing with the name of God, and started telling me that he had paid everything that was to be paid to the transportation company, and that God will judge both me and him, if what I did to him was good.. That I didn't wait for him to settle the issue amicably before I rushed to go and report him..

I was so surprised that he was even saying such a thing.

I reminded him the exact name of the transportation company, and also told him that it was written on the Manifest that the waybill-charges for my load was not paid for, and that I must pay another N30k before I carry my goods.

He started pleading that there must have been a mix-up somewhere, and that he is going to go back to the park and rectify things with them.

I continued calling him every single day to know how far he had resolve the issues with the transportation company,

And up till this moment.,, he is still telling me that he is arguing issues with them....

He even pleaded that I should help him pay N10k, so that he can pay the remaining N20k...
AND I AGREED TO PAY OOOO...!!![/i]

YET UP TILL THIS VERY MOMENT, HE HAD NOT PAID ANYTHING..

I have not carried my goods yet.
This man is really causing too much trouble to my life..


NAIRALANDERS,, COME TO MY RESCUE ONCE MORE..
Politics / Re: Mark Essien’s IREV Collation Was Used By Peter Obi’s Team Of Lawyers. by BluntNigerian: 5:51am On Mar 26, 2023
colorsofrainbow:


Oga we don leave this talk talk tey tey.

Una say make we go court. We don dey court.

Shey Una don receive the paper after Una don run finish?




Ok..



I just say make I share something wey come stumble fall inside my attention.

16 Likes 2 Shares

Politics / Re: Mark Essien’s IREV Collation Was Used By Peter Obi’s Team Of Lawyers. by BluntNigerian: 5:50am On Mar 26, 2023
More Photos..


#Copied...
Peter Obi had three full sets of results.


1. Copies of the original results given to the agents by the INEC on election day.

2. The IREV RESULTS and analysis, (probably done and brought in by Mark Essien).

3. INEC’s CTC Results gotten from the INEC.

19 Likes 2 Shares

Politics / Mark Essien’s IREV Collation Was Used By Peter Obi’s Team Of Lawyers. by BluntNigerian: 5:36am On Mar 26, 2023
In a recent Blog Post by Mark Essien (an ICT Expert), he explained (in details) the whole experiences he had while he was doing the IREV Collation.

One of the things he wrote in the article suggested that Peter Obi’s team of lawyers made good use of his collated results..

THE DRAMA IN TRYING TO CONVERT ELECTION PDFs TO SPREADSHEETS



My phone pinged: “Tell Mark Essien they are coming for him.”

I had no idea what that even meant.
It was a forwarded WhatsApp message that someone had sent to a friend of mine.

All I was doing was trying to convert PDFs from the 2023 Nigeria Presidential elections into spreadsheets.

But let’s rewind a bit and give some context.

In 2020 a small group of about 5 young people went to a crossroads in Lagos, Nigeria to protest against police brutality. Their protest was called #EndSARS, and they were protesting police brutality. SARS (The Special Anti-Robbery Squad) was a notorious segment of the Nigeria police force, known for extortion and extra-judicial killings of anybody they termed armed robbers.

For 4 days that tiny group protested, with barely anybody noticing.

--

On the last day, as they were about to leave, someone tweeted about their protest. Then someone else retweeted, and someone else. And soon, there thousands of retweets, with social media hailing them as heroes.

A few people who saw the protest on twitter joined them. It was still a small crowd, but it was growing. The news started spreading on social media, and the crowd grew. Within a couple of days, there were thousands of people protesting with the #EndSARS hashtag. The government was silent, believing it would blow away shortly.

But the protests grew and grew. Young people in other cities started joining. Nigerian social media was aflame - this was the only topic. Till the protests became violent. The protesters started attacking police stations. The policemen started shooting protesters.

--

The protesters marched to notorious SARS prisons and forced them open. Prisoners escaped. Malls were burnt down. Policemen threw off their uniforms and Government officials fled.

As the violence flared, social media now started calling for calm. But it was late - a lot of hoodlums had already infiltrated the protests, and they were bent on getting revenge for everything they blamed the Government for.

The Government tried to stop the protests, but there was nobody to talk to. There was no head of protest, no figurehead, nobody with any real authority. They called it a “headless mob”.

Social media started calling for calm, and asking the president to speak. After many days of silence, he finally spoke, urging for calm, disbanding SARS and promising to address the concerns of the protesters.

--

Things calmed down. But there was still a huge crowd gathered at the Lekki Tollgate - a major, 6 lane highway that passes through the heart of Lagos. Concerts were playing at the location, people were serving food and drinks.

--

Then ominously, on the 20th of October of 2020 some people drove there in unmarked cars and removed all the Cameras installed at the tollgate.

--

That night, as the DJs played, all the floodlights at the tollgate switched off. Social media users warned about military vehicles driving along the highway towards the location.

--

Short clips from mobile phones capture what happened next. It’s dark, people are running, gunshots everywhere. People are gathered around bleeding people, screaming. More running, lights flashing.

There are no cameras, so there is no clear reconstruction.

--

But the next morning, the army is in control of the tollgate, and the protesters are gone. Social media is filled with messages that many people were killed and the army took away their bodies and cleared the scene. The army and government said nothing like that happened.

An uneasy calm starts.

There is a lot of anger, but the protests are over. Everything seems to be back to normal. But there is an under-current of youth anger.

And the presidential election is in 2023.

Nigeria has always been a two party state - much like the U.S. It uses pretty much the same presidential system as the U.S, and just like the Democrats and Republicans, there have been variants of the same two parties facing each other. Since 2011, it has been the PDP (former ruling party) against the APC (current ruling party).

In 2022, one of the candidates abruptly left the PDP, claiming that the process was rigged against him winning the nomination. He joined a small party that had only ever won one state governorship election in its entire history.

--

Suddenly, the social media mob adopted this candidate - Peter Obi - as their preferred candidate. Many of the same handles who had called out #EndSARS now became #Obidient. Tweets, WhatsApp messages grew, calling on others to join the #Obidient movement.

Peter Obi himself seemed as surprised as everyone else that the headless mob had adopted him, but he quickly accepted the Obidients, and started using the slogans as part of his campaign.

The political establishment mocked the movement, saying the “four people tweeting in a room” had never won even a council election in Nigeria.

The movement grew louder and louder on social media, with the members of the movement letting out their anger at the existing political institution. The politicians mocked back - saying that politics was not won on social media, but at the grassroots - referring to the villagers who normally vote for whoever gives them the most money.

Election Day came. The Labour Party candidate was Peter Obi, the candidate adopted by the young people on social media. The candidate from the ruling party was Bola Tinubu, former Governor of the most populous state (Lagos), and who has been involved in selecting every Governor to the state since he was Governor. He was also rumored to be getting a cut of all Lagos State tax revenue via a consulting firm he set up when he was Governor. The candidate from the former ruling party was Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president, a very wealthy man. His wealth came from his holdings in the ports, which he helped privatize when he was vice president.

--

For the first time, Nigeria had adopted electronic transmission of voting from the polling units. That meant that the polling unit voting sheets could be viewed in real time on a website.

As the results started coming in, the country was electrified. Tens of thousands of votes were coming in for Peter Obi. Then hundreds of thousands of votes started coming in. Then a million votes came in and another million.

The senatorial election results started coming in, and the Labour Party was winning seats. An unknown party with no previous Governor or Senate seat was sweeping seats across wide swathes of the country.

But there was no way of knowing who won. Even though the Nigerian Electoral Body had agreed to electronic transmission of polling unit results, the senators and political establishment had blocked the electronic transfer of actual votes. They wanted it still written on paper, for reasons we can guess at.

With 170,000 thousand polling units, it was going to take a long time to count the results.

But across social media, videos and photos were spreading of the Labour Party winning polling unit after polling unit, people yelling in happiness as the party won. Even in the rural areas, where the politicians had claimed they had absolute control, the party was winning unit after unit.

But other disturbing videos were also coming out - of polling units destroyed, and people threatening to hurt anyone who voted for the Labour party.

--

Social Media waited for the election commission to announce the results. People tried to tally the results online, but with 170,000 PDFs in a completely unstructured format, it was close to impossible.

Then INEC started announcing the state results, over a multiple day counting marathon. At the end, the result was announced:

The Obidients Labour Party: 6.1 million votes
The former ruling PDP Party: 6.9 million votes
The ruling party: 8.7million votes
The Obidients had won in the capital city and had defeated the ruling party and their candidate in Lagos - the state they had ruled for the last 16 years. But according to the official tally, they had lost in the country.

But even as the results were being announced, people on social media were discovering that if they manually added all the results from the servers of the electoral umpire together, the total did not add up to the votes announced. They showed examples from Rivers State, where just a few polling units added together exceeded the votes announced by the electoral umpire. People cried foul.

--

The amended electoral rules required the parties to challenge election results within 21 days after they were announced. But to file, evidence was needed. The only evidence about how the election really went was spread out across 170,000 photographs of polling unit results.

There was no digital version of the results, just photos.


The clock was ticking, and immediately various Obidient groups sprung up to figure out how to extract the data out of the photos.

I was in one of the groups, and we decided to try various things.

The first thing was OCR. The photos were all snapped in many different ways, with hardly any structure. Each party result had a number beside it. The photo angles were different. Many sheets were blurry or had camera flash on them.

--

All the open source OCR software gave bad results. The best result came from Amazon Rekognition, but it was still not good enough - it would occasionally change the scores, and that was simply not going to work.

After experimenting with OCR for about a day, we gave up. WE HAD ABOUT 8 DAYS LEFT TO GO.

We had a brainstorming meeting, and decided to try a new approach. We would simply ask the Obidients to help us do the conversion. If hundreds of Obidients did the transcription, it would go fast.

So we quickly designed out a website.
And then started coding.
The frontend was in React, and the backend in PHP Laravel.

A couple of days later, the app was done. A simple site that showed a picture of a polling unit sheet and asked people to enter the votes they saw in some textfields. Then the values would be saved in the database.

I tweeted out the link.

Within minutes, I was getting replies from the Obidients. People were jumping on the site, and the first results started going up.

The progress bar started moving, slowly at first, and then faster and faster. We went from transcribing one result every minute to transcribing 1 every 10 seconds, and soon we were transcribing at 1 sheet per second.

Traffic grew on the site, and soon our completely unoptimized backend was struggling to catch up. But we were moving forward. We quickly grew to be transcribing 20,000 sheets per day.

The site had a results page that was updating the results live as the sheets were transcribing. The results were growing, and by the time we had counted 6 million votes, the Obidients were clearly in the lead. We kept transcribing, and by the time we had reached 50% of the count - 10 million votes - Peter Obi was strongly in the lead.

I tweeted that out, and all hell broke loose.

Suddenly, out of nowhere thousands of spam twitter accounts came out of nowhere, attacking the effort. Threats, attacks of all kinds hit us.

Then the bots came. Thousands of entries started on the site - all entering huge numbers for the ruling party. Different IP addresses, different proxies, all entering fake numbers.


When we started the project, we had a plan. We would first transcribe all 170,000 polling unit results, then we would do a second pass of all the results again as a validation step. If the same numbers were entered twice, then it was likely that the entered numbers were correct. But with the bots entering fake numbers, we now had a new battle to fight.

We immediately enabled captcha, and that slowed down the bots a bit. Then we quickly implemented a check to see if anybody would enter weirdly large numbers, we would ignore their entries moving forward. Then we started showing some results we knew to the bots - if they entered wrong numbers, we would stop accepting the results.

Whoever was behind the bots kept adapting and counteracting what we were doing. They went from using a script to using what felt like hundreds of humans. They went from entering absurdly large numbers to entering plausible numbers. They started entering some correct and some wrong numbers.

But the combination of techniques and the large number of Obidients also working meant that we were also getting a huge number of correct entries.

It seemed the counter-parties realized that they would not win on technology, so they started a new campaign. Hundreds of accounts that claimed to be Obidients suddenly popped up, saying that we were working for the ruling party, and that the work we were doing was designed to prove that the Obidients had lost the election. Every single post I made would have tens of those accounts replying.

And they doubled down - they created a fake screenshot showing that the ruling party had won on our site, and started spreading that. A current Government minister even tweeted this out, and a badly written article hurriedly appeared on a major local newspaper.

Their technique worked. The Obidients started doubting. Prominent Obidient accounts started threads questioning if we were working for the Government.

Meanwhile, we had completed transcribing 150,000 polling unit sheets, and we needed to move to the validation phase where we would correct all the damage the bots had done.

But the damage had been done. The crowd we had pulled to do the work did not trust us anymore. We did not have anyone anymore to help us validate the entries. Work started, but moved very slowly - less than 2000 entries validated in a day. It would take us 3 months to finish at this rate.

Was our project going to fail? If we did not announce results, the Obidients would be sure that we were working for the Government.
And the Government already saw us as enemies. How could we solve this?


I started looking through the data. We had 800,000 submissions in our database for 170,000 polling units. I was randomly sampling, and I noticed that a huge number of entries were correct. And strangely enough, the ones with the wrong entries had lots and lots of wrong entries. While the vast majority, which only had one entry, were mostly correct.

I tested around a bit, and then I realized. WE HAD A BUG IN THE CODE. When you opened the website for the first time, it was buggy - it was not returning a totally random entry the way it was supposed to. It had a huge tendency to return from a small set of entries. But subsequent ones were now random.

That meant that every time the website was fully refreshed, the first polling unit entered was one that probably already had hundreds of entries. But if you kept working, you would now be working on new units.

And I realized what could have happened - whoever was controlling the bots must have told them to refresh after every entry.
Probably they figured out that it would make it harder for us to detect. But then they ended up entering all the wrong values mostly for a small set of units that we could easily clean up.

Up to 90% of our data was perfectly clean.

We quickly stopped all entries, and start crunching the results.
A few hours of heavy server lifting, and we were done.

We had transcribed 170,000 polling unit sheets to CSV format in 5 days WITH A LARGE GROUP OF VOLUNTEERS.


We shared the results with “THE TEAM” for them to submit as part of their evidence. And we were done.

We published the results in spreadsheets here.

https://drive...........

Peter Obi filed his petition on the last day. And I was happy to see some familiar things in the filing:


Now we wait to see how the tribunal will decide.



______
___________
Email Mark Essien on markessien@gmail.com

Or follow on twitter: twitter.com/markessien.

Source:
https://markessien.com/posts/drama_of_transcription/

92 Likes 15 Shares

Politics / Re: The National Census Will Hold Between March 2023 To April 2023 by BluntNigerian: 5:06am On Jan 10, 2023
Seun
Politics / Re: The National Census Will Hold Between March 2023 To April 2023 by BluntNigerian: 5:05am On Jan 10, 2023
Lalasticlala
Politics / Re: “E-Participation In Governance”: Buhari Actually Tried It, But He Failed At It. by BluntNigerian: 5:03am On Jan 10, 2023
Nlfpmod.
Politics / Re: “E-Participation In Governance”: Buhari Actually Tried It, But He Failed At It. by BluntNigerian: 5:02am On Jan 10, 2023
Seun
Politics / Re: “E-Participation In Governance”: Buhari Actually Tried It, But He Failed At It. by BluntNigerian: 5:02am On Jan 10, 2023
Lalasticlala
Politics / Re: “E-Participation In Governance”: Buhari Actually Tried It, But He Failed At It. by BluntNigerian: 5:01am On Jan 10, 2023
He tried SHAA..
Let me give credit to him this time around.

At least, since this nice idea crossed his mind even, then he is a good thinker.
Just that,,, HE IS NOT A GOOD IMPLEMENTER..!!




But you see CORRUPTION.??
Corruption is one of the main reasons this thing didn't work.


E-Governance means having things updated automatically as they are happening,, and having the public seeing them immediately, even before the people in Government sees such information.

The Current Nigerian Politicians, (and this present government in particular) are not ready for such High-Blood-Pressure Abegg..

Politics / Re: Videos Of The 1-million March Rally For Peter Obi In Agulu, Anambra State. by BluntNigerian: 7:33am On Sep 05, 2022
Lalasticlala, Seun, Nlfpmod
grin grin
Politics / Re: Police Service Commission Workers To Embark On Indefinite Strike From Monday by BluntNigerian: 9:44am On Aug 25, 2022
Dear Obidients..
As we can now see..
We have lots of work to do on the Election day.
The Polling-Units are open for all of us to stay and cast our votes, and observe, and at the same time protect our votes.
WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ACCREDITED PARTY AGENTS BEFORE WE STAY AROUND THE POLLING-UNITS..

AND NOW, THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS CONCERNING OUR ELECTIONS ARE NOW HAPPEN AT THE POLLING-UNITS,, WHICH ARE:


1. SENDING A SCANNED COPY OF THE RESULTS DIRECTLY TO THE ONLINE RESULTS PORTAL.

2. SENDING THE SAME RESULTS TO THE CENTRAL COLLATION SERVER/ SYSTEM.


So, my dear Obidients, we won't relent..
We won't even dream of leaving the Polling-Units If the INEC Presiding Officer didn't do these two things right in front of us...
And we confirm the Online Results by logging in to the Portal.


WE ARE THE STRUCTURE THIS TIME AROUND.

WE ARE NOW THE ONES TO PROTECT OUR OWN VOTES, AND MAKE SURE THAT OUR VOTES COUNTED, AND NO MORE THE PARTY AGENTS ANY LONGER.

8 Likes 6 Shares

Politics / Re: Electronic Transmission: More Details About The Inec’s Manual Collation by BluntNigerian: 7:53am On Aug 25, 2022
GamalNasser:
Anything manual and Tinubu has won this election..that's his forte
You see this particular “Manual”??
Electronics is still in full control of it.
So, don't entertain any fear.
Come out and vote.
The “People” are there to protect your vote and make sure that “Electronics” takes its full place in the election.
Politics / Re: Electronic Transmission: More Details About The Inec’s Manual Collation by BluntNigerian: 7:44am On Aug 25, 2022
loosecanon50:
Be it Electronic or manual collation, we'll be there to monitor the whole process.

Every rigging machinery put in place will be resisted. This won't be business as usual.
Dear Obidients..
As we can now see..
We have lots of work to do on the Election day.
The Polling-Units are open for all of us to stay and cast our votes, and observe, and at the same time protect our votes.
WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ACCREDITED PARTY AGENTS BEFORE WE STAY AROUND THE POLLING-UNITS..

AND NOW, THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS CONCERNING OUR ELECTIONS ARE NOW HAPPEN AT THE POLLING-UNITS,, WHICH ARE:


1. SENDING A SCANNED COPY OF THE RESULTS DIRECTLY TO THE ONLINE RESULTS PORTAL.

2. SENDING THE SAME RESULTS TO THE CENTRAL COLLATION SERVER/ SYSTEM.


So, my dear Obidients, we won't relent..
We won't even dream of leaving the Polling-Units If the INEC Presiding Officer didn't do these two things right in front of us...
And we confirm the Online Results by logging in to the Portal.


WE ARE THE STRUCTURE THIS TIME AROUND.

WE ARE NOW THE ONES TO PROTECT OUR OWN VOTES, AND MAKE SURE THAT OUR VOTES COUNTED, AND NO MORE THE PARTY AGENTS ANY LONGER.
Politics / Re: Electronic Transmission: More Details About The Inec’s Manual Collation by BluntNigerian: 7:43am On Aug 25, 2022
Dear Obidients..
As we can now see..
We have lots of work to do on the Election day.
The Polling-Units are open for all of us to stay and cast our votes, and observe, and at the same time protect our votes.
WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ACCREDITED PARTY AGENTS BEFORE WE STAY AROUND THE POLLING-UNITS..

AND NOW, THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT THINGS CONCERNING OUR ELECTIONS ARE NOW HAPPEN AT THE POLLING-UNITS,, WHICH ARE:


1. SENDING A SCANNED COPY OF THE RESULTS DIRECTLY TO THE ONLINE RESULTS PORTAL.

2. SENDING THE SAME RESULTS TO THE CENTRAL COLLATION SERVER/ SYSTEM.


So, my dear Obidients, we won't relent..
We won't even dream of leaving the Polling-Units If the INEC Presiding Officer didn't do these two things right in front of us...
And we confirm the Online Results by logging in to the Portal.


WE ARE THE STRUCTURE THIS TIME AROUND.

WE ARE NOW THE ONES TO PROTECT OUR OWN VOTES, AND MAKE SURE THAT OUR VOTES COUNTED, AND NO MORE THE PARTY AGENTS ANY LONGER.
Politics / Re: Which State? Anambra State Or Lagos State? by BluntNigerian: 6:14am On Aug 25, 2022
Moh247:
grin

Sheey wuuna want to transform the whole of Nigeria to The Lagos Slum??
Or abi those slums no dey for Lagos?
...
Make una bring a better story abbeggii..

1 Like

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (of 39 pages)

(Go Up)

Sections: politics (1) business autos (1) jobs (1) career education (1) romance computers phones travel sports fashion health
religion celebs tv-movies music-radio literature webmasters programming techmarket

Links: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)

Nairaland - Copyright © 2005 - 2024 Oluwaseun Osewa. All rights reserved. See How To Advertise. 99
Disclaimer: Every Nairaland member is solely responsible for anything that he/she posts or uploads on Nairaland.