Ahead of Saturday’s presidential and national assembly elections, the Oyo Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has refused to approve some media houses for the coverage of the elections.
It would be recalled INEC in the State had earlier released requirements for the accreditation of media houses and which many of the media houses had met.
However, INEC in the State has embarked on a ‘selective media accreditation’, an act which is capable of preventing many media houses in the state access to cover the presidential and national assembly elections and subsequent 2019 polls in the pacesetters state.
Information gathered today at the INEC office indicated that many if the journalists who applied for accreditation last Wednesday and submitted letters from their various media houses for accreditation were surprised to find out that they were not approved.
Those in the know told our correspondents that the names were not approved because of fear by the INEC to approve journalists who can embark on objective reportage of the elections.
It was gathered that some of the unapproved media houses and journalists used their documents for accreditation in the last general elections and that the refusal of Oyo INEC to approve the media houses smarks hypocricy and attempt to prevent the journalists from carrying out their professional duties as entrenched in the Constitution of the land.
While speaking with our reporter via a telephone, the Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, {NUJ}, Oyo State Council, Comrade Bola Ogunlayi disclosed that all the names submitted by the NUJ were also left behind while adding that the issues may be resolved before the election.
Also speaking at the INEC office , the head of the information and public relations , Ayodele Folami told some of the non accredited media houses and journalists including our reporter that the decision was reached at the management level and that they had shortage of accreditation materials from Abuja, a statement that was denied by INEC’s head of information in Abuja.
Another source within the INEC confided in our reporter that the information department refused accreditation to prevent media houses and journalists whose objectivity they could not accommodate.
The source stated that the REC, Mr. Agboke was responsible for the ‘selective media accreditation’.