Ahead of the 2027 general election, some stakeholders in the Rivers State are demanding for the relocation of election result collation centres from secretariat of local government councils to Police Stations.
They are alleging that opposition political party agents have been intimidated denied access to council secretariats during the collation of election results.
They further alleged that in some cases, results of the election were altered at the collation centres during previous elections.
Speaking on this, former chairman of Labour Party (LP) in the state, Prince Favour Reuben, said officials linked to the ruling party at the local government level often prevent opposition party agents from accessing the centres.
“In most of the local government we monitored that time, they made sure agents of opposition political parties do not enter into collation centres and some of the results being collated were changed in that collation centre.
“This is due to the fact that they have monopoly of that centre, the local government. We saw what happened in 2023; at collation centres, every results were changed, was altered. It has been a recurring incident that once a result is collated in a local government where ttd ruling party is completely incharge, they will stop any other person not to enter there,” Reuben said.
He suggested an alternative location where the exercise, urging the the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to consider using Police Stations for result collation with access restricted to duly accredited party agents.
The former LP chairman said the relocation will promote transparency and protect the integrity of the process.
Reuben said: “If INEC wants to make us believe that the coming election will be free, the election will be fair and credible, the collation centres should be moved to Police Stations. The central police station in each local government should be the place where election results should be collated.
“When it is a local government council, all the officials of the ruling party, all the people in charge will all have access to that place, intimidating the collation officers, intimidating opposition political parties.”
On his part, secretary of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in the state, Ben Ogbogbulam, said opposition political parties had already raised the issue with INEC, urging the commission to consider their request.
Ogbogbulam, who is also the chairman of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) in the state, said: “We have since told INEC that collation of results should not be done at the local government secretariats.
“That is where they change results and they don’t allow agents of other political parties to have access to what they are doing. That is where they manipulate the results. We are aware of they are doing to ad-hoc workers. But this time, we are taking adequate measures to ensure that these things do not repeat itself.
Meanwhile, a rights activist, Dr. Omenazu Jackson has called on INEC to investigate the allegations and take proper action.
Jackson, who warned political leaders to avoid taking actions that could undermine the interest of the electorate, stressed the need to protect voters ahead of the 2027 election.
