Police raid phone farms, arrest suspect over alleged plots to influence 2027 elections

The Nigeria Police Force has raided phone farms allegedly used to manipulate public opinion ahead of the 2027 elections and arrested a suspect accused of spreading false information against a political candidate.

The Nigeria Police Force has uncovered facilities known as phone farms allegedly used to manipulate public opinion ahead of the 2027 general elections.

According to SaharaReporters, Assistant Commissioner of Police Bashir Abdullahi disclosed this on Wednesday during a PUNCH-organised event on artificial intelligence and election misinformation.

Representing Inspector-General of Police Olatunji Disu, Abdullahi said investigations uncovered coordinated attempts to influence political discussions through automated accounts and bots.

“We have recently come across information regarding the coordinated effort being made by some individuals to see that they tamper with our elections. Having dissected the information, we were able to carry out targeted raids at phone farms,” he said.

Police also arrested a suspect accused of spreading false information against a Southern political candidate.

Abdullahi disclosed that the force had acquired technology capable of detecting manipulated images, deepfake videos and cloned audio with up to 99 per cent accuracy.

He assured Nigerians that legitimate political criticism would remain protected.