Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at Shomolu Local Government Area (LGA) of Lagos State barred journalists, party agents and observers from its collation centre.
As against the norm of collating results publicly for fairness, the returning officer of the Governorship and State House of Assembly Elections, took the results from the wards to an inner office after selecting certain persons to carry out the exercise.
However, journalists and observers who had converged at the end of voting were denied access to the inner office, according to Daily Trust.
Those at the inner office spent long hours working on the results from the ward and about 4:58am on Sunday, the returning officer alongside police escorts left the INEC LGA office at Somolu with the results.
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Howbeit, since they refused to address the media, it is unclear if they were headed for the State collation center at Birrel Avenue in Yaba.
Though party agents were denied access to the inner office, they were later given entrance to sign and obtain duplicate sheets.
An observer, who spoke anonymously said, “After spending the night outside at the INEC office, I was able to get result snapshot from an official whom I had met in the last presidential election. The person was invited to the inner office.”
Information Nigeria reports that Somolu is one of the LGAs the ruling party All Progressives Congress lost to the opposition in the presidential election.
According to an earlier announcement by the electoral commission, activities will kick off at the State Collation Centre by 11am.
