The Nigeria Police has reacted to trending news in some sections of the media over alleged arrest of some individuals with electoral materials and some Bi-Modal Voters Accreditation System, BVAs, machines in Maitaima area of Abuja.
Police spokesperson, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said this on Wednesday in Abuja while asking the public to discountenance reports of the arrest.
Explaining what really happened, the police spokesperson said operatives of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) had visited the location, interviewed the occupants and conducted a search on the house following a report by residents of the area of suspicious activities.
According to him, in the course of the search, some electoral materials and BVAs machines were discovered in their possession.
“When contacted, the Independent National Electoral Commission, confirmed that the occupants of the house are staff of Emperor Technology, outsourcing engineering services to INEC and were immediately released,” he said.
He said the report was a false and misconstrued narrative, and therefore, called on the public to discountenance it.
Adejobi urged reporters and media houses to endeavor to carry out due diligence and ascertain the veracity of an information before spreading, to avoid being victims of the “breaking news syndrome”.
He called on the public to avoid creation and spread of misinformation and disinformation that could cause disaffection between the populace and state actors.