Again, Rivers APC Campaign Rally Attacked, PDP Agents Fingered
Early Monday morning, a band of marauding thugs dressed in Police camouflage and riding in Hilux vans stormed the Umunachi Community Rally Ground of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaign in Omuma Local Government Area of Rivers State, pulling down canopies and vandalizing vehicles parked at the venue.
Eye witness accounts report that the few Policemen on ground at the time of the attack were saying that they could not repel same since they were outnumbered.
This attack, which APC insiders said was unprovoked, was ahead of the planned visit to Omuma Local Government Area by the Tonye Cole/Innocent Barikor Governorship Campaign trail today.
The APC alleged that threats to attack and stop the gubernatorial candidate of the APC from campaigning in that LGA had been made by Hon. Kelechi Nwogu, Member representing Omuma Constituency at the Rivers State House of Assembly and PDP candidate for the Etche/Omuma Federal Constituency at the February 25 elections, and the Omuma Council Chairman, Mr. Chisom Nwaiwu.
Consequent upon these alleged threats, the Leader of the APC in Omuma LGA, Mr. Onyekachi Ojiegbe (alias Atiku) petitioned the Commissioner of Police, Rivers State Command to notify him of the impending attack.
According to APC sources, the Commissioner minuted the petition to the OC Operations of the State Command who in turn detailed the Police Area Commanders at Oyigbo and Bori to swing into necessary preemptive action.
Unfortunately, even though three detachment of the Police were deployed to Omuma by the Oyigbo Area Commander, the dare-devil thugs invaded the Rally venue at dawn just after majority of the Police contingent left to refresh themselves ahead of the arrival of the State Campaign train.
The said Rally venue was duly cleared by Mr. Ojiegbe in the face of the deprivation imposed on opposition political parties in the use of public school spaces for campaigns on alleged orders of the Nyesom Wike administration.
The Rivers APC 2023 Campaign Council in a statement on Monday strongly condemned the attack, saying that “This is one attack too many and an affront on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by hooligans who missed their way to power.
“We have broken no law conducting campaigns across Rivers State. We have always complied with the provisions of the Constitution and the Electoral Act 2022 and never forced our way into any public school or government facility for the purposes of campaign to warrant these provocative attacks.
“In fact, we have restricted ourselves to providing alternative venues for our candidates to speak to Rivers people”, a statement issued by the Spokesman, Rivers APC 2023 Campaign Council, Sogbeye C. Eli observed.
The campaign council noted that “It is incumbent therefore on institutions of State operating in Rivers State to bring this primitive ambush on democracy to a definitive end. In particular, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Okon Effiong Okon, should immediately order that Kelechi Nwogu and Chisom Nwaiwu be arrested to commence investigation of their roles in this attack this morning.
“Anything short of their arrest and prosecution is unacceptable to us and we hope that the Police Commissioner would not attend to this minimum demand with the same lethargy that previous attacks on our Rallies in Port Harcourt, Oyigbo and Opobo/Nkoro LGAs by these notorious elements were treated with that has given rise to the audacity and impunity for criminals to continue trampling on the fundamental rights of APC members to campaign in their own State.
“With the 2023 elections only a matter of weeks away, we make a final call on the President and Commander-in-Chief to prevail on the Inspector-General of Police and Director-General of the Department of State Security Services to avert anarchy in Rivers State. We make this plea believing that our dear State cannot afford a resort to self-help by the APC and other opposition parties where the Police fails to act to protect the rights, lives and properties of our members”, the APC campaign council said.
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