Vandalised data office of All Progressives Congress after an invasion by security operatives in Lagos ..
Operatives of the Department of State
Service and soldiers attached to the security unit code-named Operation
MESA on Saturday stormed the All Progressives Congress data centre in
Lagos and arrested 25 data agents and three security guards.
Rev4mation's Word learnt that the
security agents also ransacked the duplex located on Ajibola Street, off
Allen Avenue, Ikeja, and confiscated computer hardware, which contained
the data of APC members in several parts of the country.
Our correspondent, who visited the
office, observed that all the rooms were turned inside out, while
computer parts were scattered in the building.
It was learnt that the security
operatives arrived at the centre as early as 6am and ransacked the
building for about two hours before arresting those found on the
premises.
According to sources, the DSS acted on a
tip-off that the centre was allegedly being used as a warehouse by a
former Governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, to produce and issue fake
Permanent Voter Cards, while another version had it that weapons were
being kept at the centre.
However, the National Publicity
Secretary of the APC, Lai Mohammed, said in a statement that the act was
part of a ploy by the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government
to intimidate the APC ahead of the 2015 elections.
Narrating what transpired, Mohammed
said, “In the early hours of Saturday morning, a combined team of men of
the DSS and OP-MESA stormed the Bola Ajibola Data Centre belonging to
the APC in the Ikeja area of Lagos and arrested 25 APC data agents and
three security guards.
“In what was a Gestapo-like operation,
the APC membership data centre located at Number 10, Bola Ajibola
Street, came under siege between the hours of 5.30am and 7.30am on
Saturday.
“An operation of terror and brigandage
was unleashed on a legitimate operation of a leading national party.
They came without a search warrant for the premises.
“Over 50 security operatives drafted
from Abuja operations blocked the two major street entrances to the APC
data entry centre, pulled down the gates and spent over two hours
ransacking and vandalising the centre. More than a dozen computers were
destroyed. The server was also vandalised along with other equipment in
the building.
“Just like the Watergate scandal in the
USA, the state-sponsored security operatives, apparently acting at the
behest of the ruling PDP government, turned the office upside down and
pulled out and vandalised everything in sight.
“If the PDP-led government and the
security agents had done due diligence and acted professionally, they
would have known that the APC data centre is a legitimate operation and
the (members of) staff are Nigerian youths who were left jobless by the
Jonathan government.
“They chose to believe the lie that it
was a warehouse belonging to one of the national leaders of the party
where dangerous weapons were being kept, when in fact it is a centre for
entering the data provided by the millions of Nigerians who registered
as members of the party (APC) during its membership registration
exercise.”
Mohammed said the DSS were acting on
“weak and misinformed intelligence,” describing the incident as “the
worst political scandal in Nigeria’s history.”
He maintained that the action must not go unpunished.
Also, the Publicity Secretary of the APC
in Lagos, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, in a statement on Saturday, described the
raid by security operatives as “a bestial expression of the dangerous
desperation with which the PDP wants to retain after wrecking the
country and leaving it prostrate in sixteen years of tragic misrule.”
Igbokwe warned that Nigeria was “at the
very precincts of a brute, callous and dangerous era occasioned by the
deadly means a party that has failed Nigeria and humanity strives to
retain power at all costs.”
The statement partly read, “Coming after
the unsuccessful bid to remove the Speaker of the House of
Representatives through an illegal police action, and the sponsoring of
direct attack aimed at a takeover of the Ekiti State House of Assembly
by seven out of the 26 members of the Assembly, we see PDP’s increasing
resort to foul and illegal means as capable of destroying the fragile
Nigerian democracy.
“While we join in the demand for an
independent enquiry into the armed invasion of our data centre, we warn
that nothing, not even the deployment of illegal brute force, should
deter Nigerians from pursuing and securing change needed to recover a
badly wrecked country in 2015.”
Reacting to the invasion, the President,
Trade Union Congress, Mr. Bala Kaigama, warned the political class and
security agencies against stressing the patience of Nigerians in the
interest of democracy.
Kaigama urged politicians and security operatives to exercise restraint in the performance of their responsibilities.
The TUC President urged security agencies to create conducive environment for the growth of democracy in the country.
He advised that emerging problems should be dealt with in accordance with the rule of law.
Kaigama said, “The politicians should
allow us to rest in the country. That is part of what we say we don’t
want. If there are problems, the rule of law should take care.
“We urge politicians and security
agencies to exercise restraint in their exercise of security. We urge
the security agencies and the politicians to Nigerians the necessary
peace so that this democracy would thrive.
“We don’t want overzealousness from security agencies and politicians so that they don’t stress out the patience of Nigerians.”
When contacted over the matter, the
National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Olisa Metuh, said he would
get back to our correspondent but he did not, as of the time of going to
the press.
Legal practitioners also condemned the attack on the APC office.
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Kemi
Pinheiro, said invasion of a political party’s office by security
operatives was inimical to the nation’s democracy.
He said, “Nobody is above the law; not
even the law enforcers. Unless the security operatives who searched the
office of the All Progressives Congress did so with a search warrant,
their action is absolutely unacceptable. That this happened is a sad
thing for me. No authority in this country should act with impunity.
Invading the office of a political party is a new height for our
security agencies.
“The Federal Government should order the
security operatives to put a stop to all this unwarranted attacks on
harmless citizens. The security operatives seem to be insensitive to
criticisms. They must see themselves as vanguard of the rule of law.
They should be upholding the law.”
Another SAN, Dr. Joseph Nwobike, described the involvement of soldiers in the attack as inconceivable.
“I’m not justifying it or criticising
it. If the DSS visits the office of the political party in furtherance
of its investigative activities, that may be acceptable. The whole issue
is not clear now. But for the soldiers, it is completely inconceivable.
Soldiers are not involved in internal security,” he said.
The senior lawyer advised that security
agencies should stay away from offices of political parties, as parties
are also stakeholders in the overall management and development of the
country.
Similarly, human rights lawyer, Fred
Agbaje, who condemned the action, however stated that nobody could
prevent security agencies from investigating any offence.
He said, “If any of the political
parties is planning or is engaging in any act possible of breaking law
and order, the Police or any concerned security agencies of the nation
can act to intervene. But if at the end of the day, there is no concrete
outcome to their investigation and invasion, they might have acted
unlawfully.
“By invading the office of the APC, the
security agencies have exposed themselves to wanton violation of right
to privacy, right to dignity and all that. There is something negative
about all these things. They can’t just invade a political party’s
office without justification.
“Let me also add that the constitutional
infraction by the security agents will only make the PDP-led Federal
Government more unpopular in the eyes of the electorate.”
When Rev4mation's Word contacted the
Department of State Services for explanation on its action, the
organisation’s Deputy Director, Public Relations, Marilyn Ogar, stated
that the service received a petition that the building was being used to
clone the Independent National Electoral Commission Permanent Voter
Card, adding that the agency carried out an operation to investigate the
allegation.
According to her, DSS operatives
retrieved a server, three hard drives and 31 ‘Ghana must go’ bags of
hard copies of data, adding that a number of people at the office were
also arrested.
Ogar stated that the building had no sign to indicate that it was an APC office, noting that investigation had commenced.
She said, “Nobody knew it was an APC
office because there was no sign to indicate that it was their office.
Based on a petition that some people are cloning INEC Permanent Voters’
Card in the building at 10, Bola Ajibola Street, off Allen Avenue,
Ikeja, our personnel carried out an operation there this morning
(Saturday) and recovered a server, three hard drives and 31 ‘Ghana must
go’ bags filled with hard data, for analysis.
“We have commenced investigation and
this would show whether the allegations in the petition are true or not.
There was no sign that the building belonged to APC or any other party,
it was when they got to the office after they recovered the data
captured, that they learnt that the building was being used by the APC.
We are being proactive on account of the security situation in the
country, you know that the Boko Haram has been targeting Lagos and so,
we cannot afford the petition lying low.”
