Journalists have been denied access to the collation centre of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Some of the journalists who converged at the INEC headquarters in the state were reportedly sent out of the collation unit by security operatives on Saturday, December 10, 2016.
Speaking about the incidence, a journalist who pleaded anonymity said, “A police officer told us they have been ordered to stop some us from accessing the unit.”
“The officer claimed they have a special list of journalists who will be permitted to access the collation center,” he said.
Meanwhile the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, announced that collation of results would be held at the constituencies were elections held.
The electoral body made the announcement on Saturday via its Facebook page.
The statement read, “Collation of the Rivers Re-run elections will take place in the respective constituencies where such elections took place and not in one central location.”
PDP has a clear lead in the legislative elections which has been marred by violence and reports of ballot box snatching, election results snatching, and voter intimidation by agents of the All Progressives Congress, APC working in concert with security agencies.
Rotimi Amaechi, a former governor of the state and a chieftain of the APC, had declared the poll the “election of our lives” calling for his supporters to use violence during the exercise.
