Gunshots As APC, PDP Members Clash In Port Harcourt Over Inspection Of Electoral Materials

Some PDP members stopped the APC Governorship Candidate in the March 18 poll, Tonye Cole from accessing INEC office.

Gunshots were heard on Monday when members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State clashed in Port Harcourt, the state capital over the inspection of electoral materials.

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.

However, Cole was forced to turn back by members of PDP who were already on ground at the INEC office before his arrival.

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.

One injured as PDP, APC supporters clash in Rivers

3rd April 2023
By Dennis Naku

One person sustained a gunshot injury after being hit by a stray bullet when supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress clashed in Port Harcourt on Monday.

Earlier, some members of the PDP protested in front of the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission along Aba Road in Port Harcourt.

The protesters demanded a joint inspection of election materials by all political parties.

The APC, led by its governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, had last Friday said it would storm the INEC office on Monday to demand the release of Certified True Copies of documents used for the March 18 governorship election to enable the party file processes at the election petition tribunal.

Our reporter who was at the scene reports that while the PDP protests festered, Cole in company of the state APC Chairman, Emeka Beke, and other party leaders showed up at the GRA area of Aba Road and was proceeding to the INEC office when the protesters sited him.

The protesting youths raced in his direction, pelted stones and water sachets at him.

The security operatives attached to Cole immediately shielded him and whisked him into the vehicle, but the protesters continued pelting sachet water in his direction.

Within minutes, soldiers of the 6 Division, Nigerian Army, operatives of the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps arrived and shot into the air to disperse the protesters.

However, an eyewitness told our correspondent 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 a gunshot that injured his leg before friends carried and 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 there scampered for safety.

As of the time of filing this report, the GRA Junction near the INEC office in Port Harcourt is the centre of the battle.

However anti-riot policemen, soldiers and the NSCDC officers are in a show of force to avert further unrest.

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https://www.channelstv.com/2023/04/03/gunshots-as-apc-pdp-members-clash-in-port-harcourt-over-inspection-of-electoral-materials/