The Aide-De-Camp to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, DSP Usman Shugaba, on Saturday led a team of policemen and some persons believed to be political thugs to invade the Press Centre in Lokoja.
The Aide-De-Camp and his men arrived the Press Centre, a facility of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, at about 2:30pm.
They came in 12 Hilux vans on the pretext that thumb printed ballot papers were being stuffed into ballot boxes at the Centre.
They left 25 minutes later when they did not find anything incriminating.
Shugaba said they would continue the search anywhere they suspect that electoral malpractice was being carried out.
The Commissioner of Police in Kogi State, Hakeem Busari, said he did not authorise the invasion.
Busari promised to call the ADC to know exactly what informed his action.
At the time of the invasion, many journalists were on the field covering the State House of Assembly election.
They only met the bar operators and few other workers of some business owners in the premises.
The Chairman of the state council of the NUJ, Alhaji Adeiza Jimoh, expressed shock over the action of Shugaba and his team
Jimoh said the police invaded the Press Centre without serving any notice on the leadership of the union.
He said the matter had been reported to the national headquarters of the NUJ.
Kogi State is one of the seven states exempted from Saturday’s polls due to court judgments that nullified the election of their governors at different times in the past.
Their governorship elections held at different times or off season.
However, the State Houses of Assembly elections are being conducted in all the 36 states.
The other affected states excepted from the governorship poll are Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Ondo and Osun.
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