The police later took over the building which is used as the NNPP headquarters in Borno.
Tension brews in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, as armed police officers took over the state secretariat of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) following its closure by the Borno State Government on Thursday.
The office was declared illegal and sealed by the Borno government which said it was meant to be a residential building. This comes at a time the opposition NNPP is preparing to host its leader and former Kano State governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, who is billed to visit the state on Saturday.
Thursday's closure of the party office comes a day after the campaign office of the state's NNPP governorship candidate, Umar Nasco, was also shut down by the officials of the Borno State Urban Development Board on the claims that it is located in a residential area of the city.
Mr Nasco is a former member of the ruling APC and one of the 2019 governorship aspirants of the party who contested and lost the ticket to incumbent governor Babagana Zulum. He later defected from the party to join the NNPP.
Addressing journalists on the matter, the NNPP state party chairman, Mohammed Mustapha, said the government of Borno State has violated the right and privileges of the opposition members as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
"We are gathered here today to tell Nigerians that our rights have been violated by the government of Borno State under Professor Babagana Umara Zulum, who, for no reason, got our office sealed under the guise of operations of the state urban development board," he said.
"We are even more shocked and surprised by how the Nigeria police moved in with a heavy deployment of armed policemen and a Mrap truck to seal up the office and arrest top officials of our party.
"This has grossly violated our right as a duly registered and recognised political party that has spread in all the nooks of the federation."
The NNPP official said no formal notice was sent to them from the urban development board before their offices were occupied by the police.
"We have written to the police about our events of opening our office and the grand reception of our national leader and presidential candidate, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso and approval was given to that effect. We were set for the event which was supposed to take place on 27th August when they came to lock up our state office," he said.
"As law-abiding citizens of this state, we have pleaded with our party supporters to remain calm as we have tabled the matter before the CP and we are also working to see that our leader Honorable Atom Magira Tom is released from the unlawful detention he had been in since morning."
Responding to PREMIUM TIMES request for clarification on the matter, the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Abdu Umar, said the presence of the police at the office of the NNPP was not a takeover but a move to prevent the breakdown of law and order.
"We received a complaint from one of the parties in contention, which is the Borno Urban Development Board, that the NNPP had violated the original purpose of a property by establishing a party office in a residential area without express approval from the board," the police chief said.
"We went to investigate and confirmed that the gigantic building that was turned into an office was surrounded by residential properties, so we had to deploy our men to the place to prevent the situation from degenerating to confrontation."
PREMIUM TIMES also witnessed a leader of NNPP in Borno, Magira Tom, being accompanied by police officers as he alighted from a police van that drove into the police headquarters.
The politician, who is also one of the former APC governorship aspirants that lost to Governor Zulum in 2019, said he has been detained since Thursday morning.
"As you can see, I have been under arrest and illegal restriction by the police who picked me up at our party headquarters this morning," he said.
"They locked up our party governorship candidate's office yesterday, only for us to wake up to yet another invasion and take over of our new party office. And when I rushed to find out what was going on, the policemen I met asked who I was, and when they got my identity, they simply said, 'you are the person we are looking for'. That was how they shoved me into one of their vehicles and drove me with a heavy escort to the police headquarters. No one had told me my offence aside from exercising our rights as citizens."
Mr Magira Tom said the APC "is scared of a virile opposition because they have failed the people of Borno."
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"That is why they are scared of our party and the coming of our leader and presidential candidate, Senator Kwankwaso. But no amount of intimidation will deter us from telling the hidden truth about governor Zulum and his party's failures. The game has just begun."
The police commissioner, Mr Umar, however, denied that the NNPP leader was arrested or detained.
He said the politician was only invited to clarify the allegations against his party "and nothing more."
The situation has heightened political tension in the state with social media users calling out the governor for being hostile tothe opposition in the state.
The General Manager of the Borno Urban Development Board, Kaka Umar, is believed to be have avoided his office on Thursday.
PREMIUM TIMES gathered that efforts by the police to invite him for a meeting at the office of the police commissioner failed. This reporter sighted a white police van leaving the premises of the Urban Development Board after hours of waiting to see him.
When contacted on phone, Mr Umar said he was in a meeting and would call back. He has yet to do so at the time of this report.
