Rivers APC protesters over bungled polls

Members of the All Progressives Congress in oil rich Rivers State, today filed out to protest the conduct of Saturday’s presidential election.

A lot of violence was recorded in the election, with the opposition members at the receiving end of police and military brutality. A soldier was among the people killed in several parts of the state on Saturday.

Armed militias working for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) attacked APC members in Kpite Town, Tai Ward 2 and other areas of the State.

Five people were shot dead as they lined up for accreditation, according to Rivers APC Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya.

Lamenting his party’s ordeal, Ikanya said: “It is sad that PDP and its collaborators are targeting APC strongholds and chieftains for attacks and killings. To intimidate our people and contrary to the court ruling forbidding the use of the Army in this election, there has been a massive deployment of soldiers in the State with clear instruction to shoot at sight any APC agent that refuses to comply with the evil plot of PDP to write the results of the election at some designated areas of the State in favour of PDP.”

The protesters later congregated at the INEC office in Port Harcourt, with a petition calling for the cancellation of the election.

Barred from entering the INEC office to submit the petition to the commission’s administrative secretary, the leader of the protesters, Adol Dakuku Peterside, the party’s governorship candidate said they are prepared to sit out all night at the commission’s office.

In TV interviews, members of the APC in the state, including Senator Magnus Abe said there were no elections conducted in any part of the state and that the result sheets being collated by INEC were all forged.

The protesters said they had always suspected that the INEC resident electoral commissioner, Dame Gecila Khan, who had served in Delta state before came to do a hatchet job for the PDP.

At the moment, INEC claimed to be collating ‘results’ of polls never held. The APC agents were shut out of the ‘process’, while the PDP governorship candidate, Nyesom Wike, was allowed in the ‘collation’ centre.