JUST IN: Heavy Shooting As APC, PDP Members Clash In Rivers Over Inspection Of Electoral Materials
At least one person sustained a gunshot injury following a clash between supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) over the inspection of electoral materials in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Trouble started when the APC Governorship Candidate in the March 18 poll, Tonye Cole and members of his party arrived the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in the state capital to inspection of materials used in the last election in the state.
On sighting them, angry protesting youths were said to have raced towards them, pelting them with stones and water sachets.
Cole’s security operatives were said to have immediately whisked him away from the scene as the protest continued.
The situation caused pandemonium as the PDP members demanded the joint inspection of election results and the Certified True Copies of result sheets for the just-concluded 2023 general elections.
The PDP protesters had blocked both the waterlines and GRA areas of Aba road, the two major access points to the INEC head office. No car was able to drive through that stretch of Aba road from the ground lanes, while those on the GRA flyover are trapped because there is no exit route.
The PDP protest was led by the Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Edison Ehie who was re-elected in the March 18 election and Samuel Nwanosike, the Chairman of the Ikwerre Local Government Area.
Though the party won the governorship and State Assembly elections, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly who jointly led the protest, demanded that INEC grant the party a joint inspection of the materials used in conducting the March 18 elections.
The protesters believed that their demand would introduce the level of transparency needed to forestall unnecessary litigations and arguments.
Apart from the demand for joint inspection of materials, some inscriptions on the placards displayed during the protest also request INEC to make available the Certified True Copies of results.
Soldiers of the 6 Division, Nigeria’ Army, operatives of the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) rushed to the scene and shot into the air to disperse the protesters.
But it was gathered that one of the security men attached to Cole reportedly fired the stray bullet that hit one of the protesters, who later bled profusely and was carried to the hospital by sympathisers.
The anti-riot policemen, soldiers and NSCDC personnel were later seen performing a show of force with their patrol vans to forestall further attacks.
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