River’s Guber poll: Inspection of electoral materials turns bloody as APC’s candidate Tonye Cole escapes gun attack.

…PDP’s thugs behind the attempted assassination—Cole

The All Progressives Congress APC Guber candidate in the last governorship election in Rivers state, Pastor Tonye Patrick Cole, says he just escaped Assassination attempt in Port Harcourt after heavy shooting as armed youths invade INEC office on Aba Road in Port Harcourt

Eye witness says gunshots were heard when members of the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State clashed in the state capital over the inspection of electoral materials.

The source said 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 for the 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 refusing them gaining entry into the already tensed area,

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.

Speaking to Journalists during the protest, a PDP chieftain in the state, Dr Samuel Nwanosike urged INEC to be transparent by allowing all political parties inspect the materials together.

Meanwhile the APC gubernatorial candidate in the last election, Architect Tonye Cole who alleged that he was assaulted and denied access to INEC office for inspection of materials lamented that democracy has been bastardized.

He said if not for God and the security details attached to me, these boys would have wasted my life.

Security agents were however on hand to disperse the protesters and cordon off the area.

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.

He accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of sending thugs to attack him and his team at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Port Harcourt on Monday.

According to him, the aim of the attack was to prevent them from accessing election documents at the INEC office.

Cole said he and some leaders of his party were at the INEC office to obtain documents used for the election to file a petition to challenge the declaration of the PDP candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, as the winner of the election but were attacked by thugs allegedly sent by the PDP.

Cole while speaking with newsmen in Port Harcourt said he was assaulted by thugs whom he said pelted him with water, food and stones until he got injured.

He said, “We are supposed to be in a democracy and one of the tenets of democracy is that after an election, INEC being supposedly an impartial umpire will have documents and these documents are available to everybody who participated in the election. These are critical documents which when we take to an electoral tribunal, we will build our case upon that to the electoral tribunal.

“On Friday, we were at INEC, and we asked for these documents, but they have not given us a single one. We said we were coming back today (Monday) and because we said we are coming back today, the PDP organised thugs everywhere to prevent us from getting to the INEC office.

“I wasn’t deterred and so I went with my party chairman, the women leader, the youth leader, and senior officials of the APC to the INEC office.

“They had barricaded the road from GRA Junction, everywhere boys, girls. They began to assault me, I came out and a woman began to drag my shirt, they pulled me from the back, first, they were throwing water then they began to throw food and the next minute they started throwing stones.

“The next thing after that, we started hearing gunshots, it took my security people to forcefully evict me. They destroyed our vehicles, they injured me. They slapped me, they punched me, they pulled my shirt, they dragged me and then threw stones at me until I was injured in the back,” Cole narrated.

He said they left the INEC office and ran to the APC office for safety but that the thugs followed them to the APC office.

He urged the INEC national headquarters and the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba to step in, saying that the Rivers State governorship tribunal cannot hold in the state with the current happenings.

On the allegation by Cole that he was attacked by PDP members at the INEC Office in Rivers State, the party is yet to grant Channels Television’s request for a reaction.

The State PDP Chairman, Ambassador Desmond Akawor and the Chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Area, Samuel Nwanosike, one of the lead protesters at the INEC office have neither taken the calls to their phones nor responded to the text messages sent to them separately

Another lead protester, Edison Ehie who is the Deputy Speaker of the State Assembly could not be reached as his phone is said to be switched off.

INEC had declared PDP’s Fubara winner of the governorship election with 302,614 votes while Cole polled 95,274 votes. Cole rejected the result and vowed to challenge it at the tribunal.