Re: Dr. Roland Obed Whyte pulls out of permanent secretary of the year online contest over unprofessional conducts by Trendsetters Awards
The attention of the organiser of Trendsetters Awards has been drawn to a statement with the above caption, signed by Roland Obed Whyte Team, making the rounds and would wish to state categorically that the statement is misleading and malicious.
Trendsetters Awards, is an annual award event that celebrates those who have achieved remarkable feats in their chosen fields of endeavor, and just like the name suggests, Trendsetters are voted for, by the public through a secure online voting portal.
To allege that a system which runs on its own, with a reputable foreign company hosting the Trendsetters Awards server, as engaging in unprofessional conduct, comes across as a ploy to embark on cheap propaganda.
For the sake of millions of participants and our esteemed nominees, we have decided to respond to the press statement with the following facts;
1) On July 1st, the Trendsetters Awards website was attacked by spammers and hackers voting in the Permanent Secretary of the year category.
2) As a result of the malicious spamming and attempts to hack into the Trendsetters Awards website, the host company shutdown the Trendsetters awards website between July 2nd and 3rd.
3) A notice was sent by the host company notifying us of the malicious cyber activities that occured in the Permanent Secretary of the year category.
4) Interestingly, there were an additional over Hundred thousand votes recorded in favour of Dr. Roland Obed Whyte, when the Trendsetters awards website was finally restored. Which clearly shows that those who were voting for him, were responsible for the shutting down of the Trendsetters Awards website by our host sever provider.
5) Consequently, a notice was published on the Trendsetters Awards Website, stating that malicious cyber activities had taken place in the permanent secretary of the year category, and multiple voting was disallowed to forestall a repeat of the July 2nd and 3rd incident, because a shutdown would affect other categories.
6) Multiple voting was activated in all categories, including other categories that were disabled initially to make way for people to vote in other categories. This was done at 12;00 am on Saturday, July 9, as a prelude to the end of the voting process by 12:00am on Sunday, July 10.
7) The aforementioned was explained to Dr. Obed Whyte and his Representatives. So, it is quite surprising that such a press statement would be written to malign and attempt to tarnish the image of Trendsetters awards.
8) It is also interesting that at the point he miraculously got over 100,000 votes, no other nominee registered any complaint about the drastic change in numbers. An increase that occured in less than five hours.
9) Since the inception of the Trendsetters Awards in 2019, the Trendsetters awards is known for having such online voting system, which is not alien in the entertainment world as The Oscars, Big Brother Naija and other such platforms depend on the public to make the choice of who should receive an award.
10) There are over twenty Categories cutting across politics, media, academia, music and several others, and we have not received the level of complaints we have received from Dr. Obed Whyte and his Representatives.
11) We will want to urge Dr. Obed Whyte and his supporters to see this process as an activity that will produce only one winner in each category.
Signed
Gloria Boma Harry
CEO
Trendsetters Awards
