Journalists stranded at INEC office

Journalists waiting for accreditation at the INEC office

Hundreds of journalists that came to Benin to cover the Edo State governorship election were on Friday stranded at the state office of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The journalists, both local and international, had come to the INEC office as required by election regulators to collect tags and stickers that would enable them to pass security checks while covering the election.

But it appeared the electoral commission was not prepared for the large number of journalists that besieged its office to be accredited.  

By midday, the commission had run out of accreditation tags. Unimpressed by the attitude of the INEC officials, the journalists, who could not take it any longer, engaged the INEC officials in a shouting match. The Public Relations Officer of INEC in Edo State, Mrs. Priscilla Imoudu-Sule, said some of the journalists came rather too late.

She said, “Accreditation began the upper week. But some of the journalists put in their applications just on Thursday. And we are being very thorough. All those we accredited have their serial numbers embedded on the tags. This takes time and planning.

“Those that applied early have been cleared and given their materials. We have been trying our best to see how we can accommodate those that came late. But as you can see, we only have car stickers now. We shall give them to those who do not mind.”

Even at that, many journalists were yet to be attended to as at 9 pm on Friday.

The result might be that they would have to contend with security personnel that have been directed to grant pass only to people that have their accreditation tags.