Security personnel deployed to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Yola, Adamawa State capital, have barred journalists from the Election Collation Center, where results of the supplementary governorship and State Assembly elections will be collated on Saturday.
Accredited journalists mostly from the Correspondents’ Chapel of the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), were turned away by the combined security team at the center on Saturday shortly after the conduct of the supplementary elections.
The security officials were said to have received the directive from above to stop journalists from gaining access to the venue.
LEADERSHIP reports that as at 3:00pm on Saturday, local government Collation Officers have already gathered at the collation centre, even before the elections ended across the state.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) agent, Dr Aliyu Idi Hong, told journalists that INEC officials were contemplating shifting the collation centre from its initial Bank Road venue to an unknown destination for reason best known to them.
However, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Barrister Yunusa Hudu Ari, could not be reached to comment on the matter as at the time of filing this report.
