Scores of journalists have been barred from the final collation centre at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) head office in Ado Ekiti, where election results will be officially announced.
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Independent observers monitoring the election are also being expected to publish their evaluation of the election.
Some journalists who monitored the election throughout the state, despite an assortment of hurdles, assembled at the INEC office front gate, but were denied entry.
They were told to wait for the names of their accredited media organizations for the final collation results at the INEC headquarters office.
Those whose names could not be found on the lists were chased away and warned not to appear near the commission’s gate.
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INEC had accredited most of the journalists that were barred this evening for the election, and they were displaying their PRESS tags on their necks along with their identity cards.
Eze Amadi, a journalist based in Abuja who was in Ado Ekiti to cover the election for his media organization, queried why INEC would registered their names, with a letter from his office to cover the election, only to then bar him and others from the final collation centre.
"I have been moving up the nooks and crannies of the State today, giving live updates of the election to my station alongside with other colleagues,” he said. "We even interviewed the REC Chairman, placed him on Live broadcast, before voting commenced and I wouldn't know why they barred us from entry."
One of the Security Officers, whose name SaharaReporters could not quickly read on his badge because of the darkness in the area, said they were acting on “instructions.”
Policemen in dark uniforms could only be seen with their beaming touch lights in their parked vans.
At the gate of the Commission, security personnel, mostly of the State Security Services (SSS), rudely told journalists, including our correspondent, that only 15 names were handed over to them as duly accredited for the final collation coverage.
But many of the journalists who were denied access said they were duly accredited by the office of the Public Relations Office (PRO) of the INEC in Ado Ekiti.
SaharaReporters noted tonight that the street leading to the INEC office was completely and curiously in darkness during the evening, with all the streetlights switched off.
When SaharaReporters contacted by phone the INEC PRO in the state, Taiwo Gbadegeshin, he picked up his phone but after listening to our complaints, simply terminated the call.
Text messages sent to him had not been delivered as of the time of this report.
Reports from around the state indicated on Saturday night, as SaharaReporters has been reporting, that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Ayodele Fayose, is leading the contest with a wide margin in the 16 local government areas.
It has also been observed that some youths believed to be supporters of the PDP have already torn up the campaign posters of the Labour Party and the All Progressives Congress on Iworoko road, shouting 'Power!!' as a victory song.
SaharaReporters also observed results from the polling units of each local government being brought into the INEC headquarters office through Toyota Hilux Vans.
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