Police in Katsina have arrested 15 young men for allegedly possessing laptop computers that appear to be used for election purposes.
According to a police source, the men were arrested with laptops and were suspected of having "tracking devices" to be used in a situation room.
According to the source, they were apprehended at various locations throughout the Katsina metropolis on Friday evening in response to an intelligence report.
The police command spokesperson, Gambo Isa, confirmed to the MEDIA that "some youth" suspected to be hackers were arrested but did not give further details.
"You see, contrary to what some people (journalists) are telling you, those arrested were not carrying ballot papers, as has been rumored," Mr Isa said. “We had an intelligence report on suspected hackers and our men decided to act on it. We’ve some people in our custody and investigation has started. We’ve every reason to investigate them but it’s only when we have the outcome of the investigation that I’ll update you,” he said.
However, our source, who asked not to be named, provided a few more details.
“We believe they’re working for a political party because all their systems (computer laptops) have the logo of the party on the screens. They are at the CID right now,” our police source said, declining to mention the party.
Although the police investigation is ongoing, all the major political parties in Nigeria have hired young tech-savvy personnel to monitor the elections and results online.
The electoral commission, INEC, has improved its use of technology for this election including the real-time publication of result sheets from polling units on its IREV portal.
Political parties, media houses and other interested parties have thus hired personnel, who are tech-savvy, to monitor the online portals and other relevant information online.
It is unclear if that is what the 15 young men arrested by the Katsina police were hired to do by the political party that recruited them.
The presidential and national assembly elections across Nigeria hold today.