The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) battled along Aba Road in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State, on Monday as a result of the results of the March 18 governorship election.
As early as 8 a.m., hundreds of PDP supporters stormed the Independent National Electoral Commission’s office on Aba Road and demanded that the commission permit political parties to jointly inspect election documents prior to the election petition tribunal’s scheduled meeting.
Demonstrators with signs left GRA, and all traffic along the Waterlines axis stopped because of the rally.
The occurrences caused conflict between PDP and APC supporters in the state. A stray bullet injured many people and shot one of them.
Tonye Cole, the APC candidate for governor, was carried away from the scene with minor injuries. He seemed to have gotten away from a mob attack during the chaos.
Whilst the PDP protest was still going on, Cole, the state APC chairman, Emeka Beke, and other party leaders arrived at the GRA axis on Aba Road and started walking towards the INEC office.
When the protesters learned that Cole was at the GRA Junction, they attacked him with stones and water sachets.
When the demonstrators started throwing stones and sachet water at Cole and his entourage, security personnel assigned to Cole swiftly protected him and sped him to the car.
Also, the Nigerian Army’s 6 Division soldiers from Port Harcourt, as well as members of the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, arrived shortly after and began firing into the air to disperse the demonstrators.
To avoid any damage to the building, the security forces positioned patrol vehicles in front of the INEC headquarters.
Shortly later, Cole told reporters at a different location that he and the woman leader of his party had been attacked while going calmly to INEC to collect paperwork.
“We were not permitted to approach the INEC office in any way. This was done on purpose to keep us from getting the essential supplies needed for our petition. We were also informed that they would be there on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, and by that time we would not have any INEC documentation to submit before the tribunal.
“The tribunal is the only thing in which we are interested. You claim to have won; enable us to provide evidence in the tribunal demonstrating that you did not,” he added.
When reached, the PDP’s state publicity secretary, Sydney Gbara, called Cole’s assertions untrue.
According to Gbara, “the reality is that Pastor Tonye Cole is stretching the truth in order to mislead the trusting members of the public.
What happened was that the PDP went to INEC to register their protest and make demands, including that they are permitted to view the election result sheets as well.
And as we are all aware, numerous political parties have followed suit since the election. Nobody else has gone there to impede or oppose them.
However, what we observed today was that Tonye Cole sent goons in police costumes to try to obstruct what the PDP was doing. We rebuffed them.
“While doing this, the thugs started shooting into the crowd in an effort to scatter the PDP supporters. And one of our supporters was wounded by gunfire and taken to the hospital. As I speak to you, it has been confirmed that he is deceased, according to the information we currently have.
The PDP is requesting that Tonye Cole be apprehended right away for the death of that young guy by the state commissioner of police and the inspector general of police.