Several Wounded As PDP, APC Supporters Clash In Rivers

P/HARCOURT – Several persons sustained inju­ries following sporadic shootings on Monday as supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) clashed in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

Some members of the PDP had staged a protest in front of the of­fice of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) along Aba Road in Port Harcourt, demanding a joint inspection of election materials by all political parties. ­

They were led by the Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of As­sembly, Edison Ehie, who was reelected in the March 18 election and Samuel Nwanosike, the Chairman of Ikwerre Local Govern­ment Area (LGA).

But they later clashed with APC supporters, who accompanied Tonye Cole, the governorship candidate of their party to the INEC office who was trying to gain access to INEC office for scheduled inspection of documents needed by the party to file its case at Elec­tion Petition Tribunal.

Our reporter, who was at the scene, reports that while the PDP protest was on, Cole in company of the state APC Chairman, Chief Emeka Beke, and other party leaders showed up at the GRA axis of Aba Road and were proceeding to the INEC office when the pro­testers sighted them.

The protesting youths raced towards Tonye Cole’s direction, pelted stones and sachets of water at him.

Security operatives at­tached to Cole immediately shielded him and whisked him into his vehicle, but the protesters continued pelting sachets of water at his direction.

Within seconds, soldiers of the 6 Division, Nigeri­an Army, operatives of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSC­DC) arrived the scene and shot into the air to disperse the protesters.

A source hinted that one of the security men at­tached to Cole fired the shot which hit one of the protest­ers who was advancing to­wards him.

The man bled profusely on the floor due to the gun­shot with injured leg before friends took him to the hos­pital.

Sensing that the PDP sup­porters were more, Cole’s security whisked him away from the scene, while the APC supporters scampered for safety.

However, anti-riot police­men, soldiers and NSCDC personnel forestalled any further attacks.

On his part, Nwanosike accused INEC and the police of being biased in favour of APC and Cole.

He claimed INEC allowed APC exclusive access to certi­fied true copies of election ma­terials against other parties.

Speaking to reporters lat­er about what transpired at the INEC office, Tonye Cole said, “We didn’t want to go to the INEC office with a crowd, so the party chair­man, the youth leader, the woman leader, and I went to the INEC office. When we got there, the PDP thugs had already barricaded the roundabout, so we couldn’t access the office.

“They (thugs) told me that they were going to em­barrass me and wouldn’t allow me access the office. The next thing I heard, somebody slapped me on the back of my head, and anoth­er person was holding my shirt. They threw stones at us, destroyed our vehicles, and a missile hit me on my shoulder.

“The Department of State Services (DSS) and some oth­er security officers asked me to leave because I insisted that I wasn’t going to leave, that they should kill me if that was what democracy was about. My security de­tails restricted me and took me away from there.”

Lamenting on the role of the police, he said, “Recall that a few days ago lawyers that were working on our brief were arrested by men of the Surveillance and In­telligence Unit of the Nige­ria Police Force. When we got back to the party office, the same police officers that arrested our lawyers were the ones giving cover to the PDP thugs that left the INEC office and followed us to our secretariat.

“They got there and be­gan to shoot, insisting that they were going to kill me. I was told that they were there to demand their CTC, it was laughable. If they were there for that purpose they should have just gone and picked theirs as we de­mand ours.”

He added, “I don’t know who permitted PDP to bar­ricade the INEC office. They attacked me physically to prevent me from getting the CTC and by Friday we would be out of time. If I don’t get the CTC by Friday we wouldn’t be able to peti­tion.

“What is PDP afraid of ? If the police gave the PDP permission to mount the barricade at INEC and are violent about it, the police should go and clear them, because I intend to go back to the INEC office and col­lect my document today.”

Speaking on his next line of action, he said, “If I am not able to access the Port Harcourt INEC office, I will go to INEC headquarters, Abuja, to see the chairman. I tried to see the REC, to no avail, and all their phones were switched off. Since INEC Rivers State has de­cided that for whatever rea­son, it wouldn’t release the document, then I will go to the INEC national and if it decides to prevent us from access to the CTC, then they would explain to Nigerians what they are afraid of.

“If PDP claims that it won every constituency in Rivers State and it is a very popular party in the state, why prevent us from getting the CTC?” Cole queried.

“They claimed that they have won freely and fairly. But we are saying no, that the election was rigged and we want to prove it at the tri­bunal and they are saying we should not”, he said.