The Nigeria Police Force has revealed that their raid on the second floor of the Nigeria Labour Congress complex in Abuja was aimed at gathering evidence against an international “subversive” individual who they believe poses a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.
On Monday’s Politics Today show on Channels Television, Force Public Relations Officer Muyiwa Adejobi stated that the reason behind the August 7, 2024 raid of the NLC complex was that a suspect was staying on one of its floors.
According to Adejobi, the raid occurred on the second floor, which houses the suspect’s office, rather than the NLC headquarters on the tenth floor.
“We recovered evidence to prove that the suspect is a threat to the nation, the man is a suspected subversive element,” Adejobi said.
The NLC reported last Wednesday that at approximately 8:30 p.m., heavily armed security guards broke into its headquarters in the country’s capital and took documents.
Local and international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, among others, denounced the raid.
However, the force spokesman said that the NLC and the suspect, whose syndicate members have been arrested, had established a landlord-tenant relationship.
Adejobi stated that the raid had nothing to do with the recent nationwide demonstrations against bad governance.
He said that the police have started a forensic investigation and that the NLC would be required to look into the suspect’s claims to have several foreign identities, such as being British and Russian.
“The NLC is not the suspect here. We had a target and whatever it takes, we must get him at all means,” Adejobi said, hinting that the suspect travels frequently out of Nigeria.
The raid was not to get the man but to recover certain incriminating evidence and we have gotten what we want, Adejobi said.
The police accused the suspect of “subversion” and threat to “run down the country”.
“We have (uncovered) plans that people want to run down Nigeria. We have (uncovered) plans that people want to destroy our democracy, destroy our common heritage called Nigeria, and we cannot keep quiet…We are getting enough help and we will get this man,” he said.
