PDP, APC supporters clash in Rivers

WHAT would have been a deadly clash between supporters of the All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party was averted by the operatives of the Rivers State Police Command on Tuesday. Over 2,000 supporters from both parties had surprisingly converged in the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission along the Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway, protesting an alleged bias by the commission. While the PDP supporters accused the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mrs. Gecilla Khan, of planning to rig the forthcoming general election in favour of the APC, those of the APC are also alleging that Khan was doing the bidding of the PDP. Armed policemen, who were on the ground, had a hectic day trying to avoid the exchange of blows by supporters of both parties as some security operatives took positions in strategic points to ward off any incursion of the protesters into INEC’s office. The APC supporters had converged on the Legislative Quarters close to the INEC office as early as 7am in preparation for the protest against the commission only to meet PDP supporters at the electoral umpire’s front gate who were there for a similar purpose. Not comfortable with the presence of the APC supporters, who were chanting ‘Change’, the PDP supporters chased away their perceived enemies and destroyed some of their placards. A journalist with a radio station, Today FM, was injured as he tried to dodge a stone thrown by one of the angry protesters, was taken to the hospitals by some of his colleagues. Some of the placards displayed earlier by the APC supporters read, ‘Rivers REC, Are You a Member of PDP?’, ‘We need unbiased umpire in Rivers’, ‘Rivers people will resist any attempt to manipulate the electoral process’, ‘INEC, your secret agenda with PDP has been exposed’, and ‘We want a free and fair election in Rivers’. However, some of the inscriptions on the PDP supporters’ placards read, ‘INEC, you are working for APC’, ‘INEC, we need a free and fair election’, ‘We will not accept fake results’, and ‘INEC, you are partial’. One of the PDP protesters said they (PDP supporters) will never be intimidated by their APC counterparts. “We have chased them away. Some of them (APC supporters) ran into the bush. We took their placards away from them. Why would they venture into the place we are protesting,” he said. Speaking on the matter, the State PDP Publicity Secretary, Mr. Samuel Nwanosike, told newsmen at the venue of the protest that INEC was recruiting card-carrying members of the APC as their adhoc staff, adding that such a development would not create the atmosphere for the conduct of a free and fair election. Nwanosike, who later met with the State REC, also faulted INEC’s insistence on the use of card readers during the March 28 and April 11, 2015 elections, maintaining that the test-run by the commission had shown that the item would not be able to assist the commission to conduct a hitch-free poll. He specifically stated that one of the aides to Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Chief Tony Okocha, had two brothers; Godfrey and Gibson who were working as Assistant Electoral Officers with INEC in the state, adding that the development will not pave the way for the conduct of a free and fair election in the state.Source:Punch