The Rivers State Police Command and other security agencies have beefed up security in strategic locations in Port Harcourt ahead of the collation of the gubernatorial and state assembly election results billed to commence today.
The spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command Public Relation Officer, Nnamdi Omoni, in a statement yesterday, said a detachment of police and other security agencies had cordoned off the premises of the INEC Office on the Aba-Port Harcourt Road and the entire perimeter surroundings of the area.
The popular GRA and Waterlines Roads leading to the INEC Office were also shut down.
The INEC had, on March 21, announced the resumption of the collation and announcement of results in the state between April 2 and April 5.
Omoni said the state’s Commissioner of Police and the chairman of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, Usman Belel, after a meeting, agreed to put in place adequate security measures to make the entire process transparent and seamlessly carried out.
He said the measures included massive deployments of police personnel and other sister security agencies to the venue and the outer perimeter of the collation centre; total closure of the Aba-Port Harcourt Road, the stretch from the Waterlines to the GRA junctions, both in and outwards of the roads.
He said the CP noted with concern, the temporary hardship the closure would cause and appealed to the public to show understanding and bear with the command as the closure was done in the overall interest of the public and intended to provide conducive atmosphere for the collation exercise.
He warned politicians, candidates and unauthorized persons to steer clear from the collation centre, saying “any person or group whose act or omission undermines the process will be arrested and prosecuted in accordance with the Electoral Act.”
