by Ben Ezeamalu
The New York-based security firm that helped analyse the voices of the characters in the shocking leaked recording on the rigged Ekiti election has given insight into how it determined the authenticity of the audio clip.
In a report, Guardian Consulting said it conducted a forensic examination on the discussion and compared the voices to public record samples of the known individuals.
In an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, Tom Fitzgerald, the President of the company, confirmed that his company did the investigation.
“I can confirm that we did the testing,” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
He declined further comments, referring PREMIUM TIMES to a London-based firm, ATP Advisers, who he said gave his company the job. ATP Advisers could not be reached for comments.
According to his Linkedin profile, Mr. Fitzgerald was a former detective with the New York Police Detective [NYPD] and the Foreign Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He has over 30 years experience as a detective of repute.
Read full report of the investigation below.
Fr: Guardian Consulting LLC
Re: Executive summary regarding Nigeria tapes
Nov. 27, 2014
Guardian Consulting Group LLC were engaged on Nov. 10 to conduct forensic examinations on an audio recording purported to be a private discussion among presumed Nigerian officials regarding disrupting an election (“The Recording”). The first phase of the engagement was to conduct analysis to identify the voices on The Recording by comparing them to public record samples of known individuals. The second phase was to judge the veracity of selected parts of the conversation to a degree of scientific survey.
Executive Summary of Findings:
IDENTIFICATION
The following voices from The Recording were subjected to a Forensic Voice Frequency Comparison against known samples and were found to match to a 98% degree of certainty:
• Governor Avo Favose
• Senator Iviola Omisore
• Hon. Abdulkareem
• Caleb Olubolade
The following voice from The Recording was subjected to a Forensic Voice Frequency Comparison against a known sample and was found to match to an 80% degree of certainty:
• Senator Musiliu Obanikoro
VERACITY
• Gov. Avo Favose was being truthful when he said: …there is no vehicle that left this place without that sticker.
• A person identified as Obanikoro with 80% of certainty was judged to be completely truthful when he said to a person identified as Abdul Kareem: If am a happy man tomorrow night, the sky is your limit, and at the end of the day if am unhappy…I am not here for tea party, am on a special assignment by the president.”
• A person identified as Abdulkareem with a 98% degree of certainty said: “I was the one who created road blocks, I was the officer on ground sir.”)
DETAILS
The primary sample provided to Guardian Consulting is identified as “The Recording” for filing purposes.
The client provided these known samples:
Governor Ayo Fayose- www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOce2g4O9XM .
Senator Iyiola Omisore- www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByzAuXi5k8k
Honourable Abdulkareem- www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM1yY4E4Qaw
Caleb Olubolade- www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9XIaxRwjyA
Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro www.youtube.com/watch?v=bO2SyPkk52w
METHODOLOGY
Starting with provided sample, identified here as The Recording, voices were isolated and five voices were positively identified as uniquely identical through voice print analysis. One additional background voice fragment was isolated but no identification was made (n.b. It is possible that the additional voice came one of the five subjects but was distorted due to a recording or transmission glitch). The unidentified voice fragment was fleeting and did not make up a substantial part of the conversation.
The Forensic Voice System (“FVS”) measures including frequencies discernable by the human ear as well as others above and below human recognition. Patterns of the frequencies are entered into the FVS in which a
Frequency Voice Print is then produced and displayed. The Voice Print is quantified for comparison.
The process was repeated with the provided known samples and Voice Prints were established for each of the five subjects.
Identical words were identified from The Recording and the known samples. Each of the identical words was printed. The prints were then compared leading to the following conclusion:
• Governor Ayo Fayose was found to match the public sample to a 98% or greater degree of scientific certainty.
• Senator Iyiola Omisore was found to match the public sample to a 98% or greater degree of scientific certainty.
• Honourable Abdulkareem was found to match the public sample to a 98% or greater degree of scientific certainty.
• Caleb Olubolade was found to match the public sample to a 98% or greater degree of scientific certainty.
. Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro was found to match the public sample to a 80% or greater degree of scientific certainty.
The prints were further analyzed for veracity. No substantive untruths were identified: 85% of the conversations were deemed to contain identifiable veracity to a 98% degree of certainty. The remaining 15% was identified as inconclusive.
The findings are based on the samples supplied. We relied on public identification of the known samples.
Further analysis of the voice attributed to Sen. Musiliu Obanikoro may result in a higher degree of certainty, but quality of the original recording not the additional publicly available samples are the primary reason for this level of veracity being listed. Further analysis against the new samples will be completed on Monday December 1.
James Mulvaney
James Mulvaney, Director
Nov. 27, 2014
New York City Hudson Valley
Guardian Consulting LLC 120 Ramapo Rd.
445 Park Ave. 9th Floor Suite 348
New York, N.Y. 10022 Garnerville, NY 10923
347-924-6525 – Office 845.271.3366/67 – Office
917.322.2105 – Fax 845.271.3368 – Fax