Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Tension is seriously building in Benue over the non-declaration of the National Assembly election results in Benue North West and Benue North East senatorial districts three days after the elections were concluded.
More than 18 hours after the results of the Benue South Senatorial district National Assembly (NASS) election was announced, those of Benue North East and Benue North West districts are yet to be declared.
There have been speculations that some powerful politicians from the two zones who might not be favoured by the result so far were trying hard to upturn the results in their favour.
But not wanting to take chances, hundreds of Benue youths who have eagerly been awaiting the declaration of the results besieged the entrance to the state head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday afternoon.
The youths who were said to have accompanied the electoral materials from the local government collation centre at North Bank area of Makurdi (for Zone B) where collation was going on became apprehensive and the situation was almost becoming chaotic.
The shift in the venue, it was gathered, was attributed to security reasons; the youths who feared that the delay in announcing the results might spell doom for their preferred candidates insisted that the electoral umpire must announce the result before they would leave the area until security agencies keeping watch at the INEC had to disperse them with tear gas canister.
But our correspondent gathered that collation officers from the Benue North East Senatorial District (Zone A) and Benue North West Senatorial District (Zone B) had to relocate to the INEC headquarters in Makurdi to put finishing touches to the exercise preparatory to the announcement of the results today (Tuesday) before noon.
Agents of the parties were also around monitoring the situation just as there were so much suspicion and apprehension as to what the final results would be in view of the conflicting reports in the social media.