Police, ‘thugs’ exchange gunfire outside Ondo collation centre

Journalists, party agents and observers fled in different directions after the police and suspected thugs exchanged gunfire outside St Peter’s Primary School, Akure, on Saturday.

The primary school is being used as the collation centre of Akure south local government area of Ondo.

Electoral officials were getting set for collation of the governorship election results when violence broke out.

“Leave! It’s not safe here! Leave now,” some of the policemen manning the entrance the collation centre told journalists and observers.

Akure south local government area is where Eyitayo Jegede, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) hails from.

Earlier, at one of the polling units in the area, a policeman had said some hoodlums were planning to hijack ballot boxes.

It’s not clear what the intention of the suspected hoodlums around the collation centre is, but additional policemen have been deployed in the area.