The Department of State Services (DSS) has given the reasons for invasion an office of the main opposition party All Progressives Congress (APC) in Lagos.
Lagos data office of the APC after invasion by DSS operatives, soldiers
According to PremiumTimes, Marilyn Ogar, the spokesperson of the DSS, popularly called SSS, in a statement revealed it got a petition supposing “unwholesome activities” in the building situated at No.10, Bola Ajbola Street, Allen Avenue, Ikeja.
He said, “The petition alleged that those behind the activities were cloning INEC Permanent Voters Card with the intention of hacking into INEC data base, corrupting it and replacing them with their own data.
“Based on this information, the service placed the building under surveillance and having been convinced that some unwholesome activities were going on in the building, it undertook a raid of the premises.
“In the process, some persons were arrested, while a server, three hard drives and 31 Ghana must go bags of hard copy documents were recovered and taken away for further investigation.”
Ms Ogar, who has in the past made unconfirmed claims against the APC, said the building had no sign post representing it was a private or government office.
The DSS statement came over 24 hours after the party declared the invasion of its office and called for a full investigation of the committers.
Lai Mohammed, the APC spokesperson said the building was being used as a data centre for its members.
“In what was a gestapo-like operation, the APC membership data centre located at Number 10, Bola Ajibola street, off Allen Avenue in Ikeja, came under siege between the hours of 5:30 am and 7:30 am on Saturday,” he said.
“More than a dozen computers were destroyed. The server was also vandalized along with other equipments 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 vandalized 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 staff are Nigerian youths who were left jobless by the Jonathan government. Apart from the Lagos centre, the operation is decentralized and similar centres are functional in about six different locations around the country.
“Now that they have overreached themselves by attacking the offices of the main opposition party and destroying part of its membership database, can the PDP-led government still claim to be operating under the rule of law? Can the government sincerely tell the world it is now ready for free and fair elections in 2015? This is one impunity too many, and we will not allow it to be swept under the carpet,” it said in a statement.
The Lagos data center of the All Progressives Congress was invaded by operatives of the Department of State Service and soldiers on Saturday. 25 data agents and three security guards were arrested in the process.
Ahead of the 2015 general election, an epic battle is underway in Lagos State between APC and its main opponent, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). It is the battle for the governorship seat of the state. The ruling APC and the PDP, which controls the Federal Government are engaging in a showdown.