On the heels of the just concluded Nigerian presidential elections, multiple social media users, including the spokesperson of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dele Momodu, have shared a video showing the Nigerian police arresting some individuals.
The police had also confiscated some electoral materials like laptops, desktop computers, including the Bi-modal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) – an electronic device designed to read permanent voter cards (PVCs) and authenticate voters.
Some of the items shown in the video were branded ‘INEC’.
The video claimed that the police had swooped in No. 15 Ganges Street, Maitama, Abuja, following a tip-off from unidentified sources that the location was being used as a base to manipulate the February 25 presidential elections.
The arrest was made on Tuesday, February 28, 2023.
The CDD Election War Room checked this claim and this is what we found.
Channels TV, TVC news, as well as other credible media agencies in the country, had, on March 1, 2023, reported that the Nigerian police had debunked the claims about the arrest of the said individuals.
The individuals arrested were INEC engineers and the BVAS and other electoral materials confiscated were in the lawful possession of the individuals.
The Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, confirmed in a statement on Wednesday, that operatives of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) had acted on a tip from residents of the scene of the arrest who arrested suspicious activities.
Thereafter, the team visited the location, interviewed the occupants, and conducted a search of the house, adding that in the course of the search, some electoral materials and BVAS machines were discovered in their possession.
“However, the Independent National Electoral Commission, when contacted, confirmed that the occupants of the house are staff of Emperor Technology, outsourcing engineering services to the INEC, and they were immediately released to go about their lawful business,” the statement read.
In a statement by the director, operations & innovation of Emptech Technologies Nigeria Limited, Selnan Nimyel, the firm said that the BVAS taken were actually sent by INEC for repairs.
Verdict
The claim that police found BVAS and other electoral items meant for the manipulation of election results is false. CDD Election War Room had found that while the video was from the said arrest made on February 28, 2023, the Nigerian police force had debunked such arrest after INEC confirmed that the persons arrested were its engineers and in lawful possession of the items.