APC, PDP in Verbal War over Arrest of 15 Agents in Katsina

Francis Sardauna in Katsina 

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Saturday engaged in a verbal war over the arrest of 15 party agents by police operatives for allegedly planning to hack the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) servers to rig election results.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Gambo Isah, who announced the arrest of the 15 suspected party agents while briefing journalists Friday night, said they were nabbed with 20 laptop computers.

While the APC said the suspects were PDP members who were planning to intercept the transmission of election results through electronic gadgets, the PDP described APC as a dying party due to its maladministration, bad governance and zero performance in eight years.

The Deputy Director, Public Affairs, Tinubu/Shettima Campaign Council, Hannatu Musa-Musawa, in a statement, accused the PDP of securing a building belonging to one Abdulrazeez Mamman for the purpose of deploying electronic gadgets and computers suspected to be used for the purpose of intercepting the transmission of election results from polling stations to INEC.

The party explained that no fewer than 12 PDP members were arrested by police operatives in connection with the incident with “approximately 21 computers found in their possession”.

It said: “While we appreciate the swift and prompt intervention of the Nigerian Police Force, however, we wish to call for an in-depth and thorough investigation with a view to ensuring that all culprits, if any, are made to face the full wrath of the law. 

“At this juncture, the All Progressives Congress wishes to reiterate its commitment to ensuring a free, fair and credible election in an atmosphere devoid of electoral malpractice. Furthermore, our party shall continue to monitor the investigative activities of the Nigerian Police Force with regards to the said incident”.

But in a swift reaction, the opposition PDP in the state described the “unwarranted and unprovoked” Police attack on its Computer Room as callous, wicked and barbaric.

The party, in a statement issued to journalists by the Director, Media and Press of the Atiku/Lado Campaign Council, Kabir Yusuf Yar’Adua, accused the Police of carting away its computers and accessories in which vital and highly classified information as well as documents were being stored in the last six months to date.

It vowed to institute a legal action against the Police for violating its rights to privacy and trespassing its territory without any valid court order or warrant of search without committing any offence to warrant such undemocratic act.

The statement reads: “In this 21st Century, the Police action should be viewed by all right thinking individuals as evil, mischief and inhuman which seeks to retard our progress and development.

“PDP in Katsina will therefore hold the police responsible in the event any of its computers, accessories or stored documents got lost, destroyed, removed or damaged.

“In addition, what stops the police from meting out such bad action to other political parties in Katsina? Why then singling out PDP? Or is it because of its popularity and or becoming a threat to the fast dying APC due to its maladministration, bad governance & sheer below zero performance in its almost eight years in office?”.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Gambo Isah, on Friday night announced the arrest of 15 party agents over suspicion of plans to interfere with the results of the 2023 general elections.

He said the suspects were nabbed in Katsina metropolitan area with unspecified numbers of computer laptops and applications alleged to belong to a popular political party.

Isah, a superintendent of police, said the men were being detained at the command’s Criminal Investigation Department, adding that investigation was already on going into the matter.

“We arrested 15 suspects with unspecified numbers of laptops and apps belonging to a political party. We have commenced investigation and we don’t want to jump the gun.We have already invited experts to conduct investigation on the items as we don’t want to jump the gun. We shall make public the outcome of the investigation”, he said.