Operatives of the Department of State Service and soldiers yesterday
stormed the All Progressives Congress data centre in Lagos located on
Ajibola Street, off Allen Avenue, Ikeja, were they ransacked the duplex
and confiscated
computer hardware which contained essential documents of the party. They
also
arrested about 25 data agents and three security guards.
APC has however condemned the invasion and released a press
statement to that effect. Read the statement below and also see more alarming photos.
APC strongly condemns invasion of its offices, calls it
worst political scandal in nation's history
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has strongly condemned
Saturday invasion of its offices in Lagos by security agents, calling it
perhaps the worst political scandal in Nigeria's history.
In a statement issued in Ijebu-Ode on Saturday by its
National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the invasion
can only be likened to the Watergate Scandal that led to the resignation of US
President Richard Nixon in 1974, as a result of the June 17, 1972, break-in at
the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters at the Watergate office
complex in Washington, D.C., and the attempted cover-up of its involvement by
the Republican Nixon Administration.
It therefore called for an independent inquiry to fish out
those who ordered the needless and unprovoked attack on the offices of the APC
and ensure that they face very serious consequences, irrespective of their
status
''Saturday's attack is another one in the string of attacks
and illegal actions of the PDP-led administration. The attack was unwarranted
and unjustifiable. To attack one of the offices of the opposition party, APC,
where legitimate operations of the party were being undertaken is an act of fascism
and totalitarianism. To the point of brigandage, the invasion of the APC centre
is an assault on the APC and its entire membership across the country. It must
not go unpunished,'' APC said
The party said though it had been tipped off about an
impending attack on the 'secret warehouse' of our leader Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
''we dismissed such plan because there was no 'secret warehouse' anywhere and
also because we never imagined that the government will attack the offices of
an opposition party in a constitutional democracy. Obviously we under-estimated
the desperation of the Jonathan Administration and its worsening proclivity to
impunity.''
Giving details of the invasion, the APC 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 about 25 APC data agents
and 3 security guards.
''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.
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 2 hours ransacking and vandalizing the centre.
''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.
''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 during its membership registration
exercise,'' the party said.
It described the invasion as another act of impunity, now a
trademark of the Jonathan-led presidency which is being edged on by the hawks
in the PDP.
APC called the invasion of its offices an attempt to
suppress the opposition, get details of its membership with the intention of
using it to rig the 2015 elections and also to destroy the spirit of democracy.
''When in Oct. 6th, 2013 we issued a statement alerting
Nigerians that the Jonathan Administration was using Rivers State as a testing
ground for creeping fascism ahead of the 2015 elections, some said we were
raising a false alarm.
''Well, here we are. In the past five months, the PDP-led
government has stepped up its acts of impunity and terror against the leaders
of the APC and all non-PDP actors. Elected officers, who are not PDP members,
have had their rights repeatedly violated by the police and other security
operatives. Never before has an elected government been so scared of the
opposition to the point of shutting it down.
''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 a free
and fair elections in 2015? This is one impunity too many, and we will not
allow it to be swept under the carpet,'' the party vowed.
Alhaji Lai Mohammed
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)
Ijebu-Ode, Nov. 22nd 2014
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