TONY JOHN, Port Harcourt
Security has been beefed up with the military, stationed around the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), along Aba Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
There was heavy deployment of Nigerian Army, operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (FSARS), who condoned off the entire Waterline and GRA junctions along Aba Road, in the state capital.
Over 15 patrol vans excluding two Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) were used in blocking the GRA junction. The situation caused gridlock and palpable panic in Port Harcourt and its environs.
Journalists were barred from crossing the barricaded areas, except a few media houses, who the military claimed were accredited to have access to INEC office.
Earlier, there was a reported case of clash between the army and police personnel at INEC office, apparently over who should be in control of the commission.
This was even as Rivers people eagerly awaited for the governorship and House of Assembly elections results.
Following the tension at the INEC office, , personnel of the commission have fled their offices.
An anonymous source in INEC premises alleged that election returning officers from two local government areas who were at the commission’s office were accosted by military men and taken away.
According to the source, no agent of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) or any of the other political parties, was at INEC office, except the agents of the newly adopted African Action Congress (AAC).
Our correspondent gathered that stern-looking armed soldiers at the GRA junction, Port Harcourt, ordered operators of a popular eatery to sell only take-aways to customers for security reasons.
Meanwhile, security operatives teargassed a group called Port Harcourt Significant Girls during a peaceful protest, urging the soldiers to leave INEC to perform its function.