On Sunday, the Niger State Command broke into the situation room of Umar Bago, an All Progressive Congress candidate for governor of Niger State.
The police entered the premises and ransacked the situation room, according to Abdulberqy Ebbo, director of digital and strategic communications for the Bago Campaign Organization. They claimed to be acting on a tip from someone.
Before the APC-favored gubernatorial election on Saturday, Ebbo claimed that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the search had received reliable information that members of the Independent Election Commission were inside the building with important papers.
He said, “I got a call that the situation was being searched by the police. I rushed there and asked the DPO what was going on and he said they were informed that INEC staff were in the situation room thumb-printing ahead of the governorship election on Saturday.
“When they finished searching, they discovered that there was no such thing going on in the building. At that time, the Commissioner of Police had also arrived on the premises, so the boys who have the information were arrested for giving false information to the police.
“As I was arriving at the building, I noticed many PDP members standing by and then I realised the report had come from them and they seemed ready to cause trouble. The CP said having a situation room wasn’t out of place.”