By Godwin Chukwumaechi, Port Harcourt
Supporters of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory FCT, Nyesom Wike, have protested in the state capital, Port Harcourt, against the conduct of the local government elections in the state.
This was as the state chapter of the APC, led by Tony Okocha, has announced a bomb attack on its secretariat along Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway in the heart of the state capital.
The protest which is the second in less than a week according to some of the protesters is to register their disapproval of the election which they described as illegal and against court judgment.
Hundreds of the protesters who gathered at the Polo club marched from the club to the GRA junction of the Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway.
One Henry Bobmanuel, who spoke on behalf of the protesters said; “We are law abiding citizens, that’s why we are not participating in the elections, we gathered here to tell the world that there’s is no local council election in Rivers State”.
Unfortunately, the protests could not prevent the local government elections from going on but only succeeded in making the police withdraw from the exercise as the Rivers Police command cited it as one the reasons for their decision not to provide secure for the exercise.
While conducting journalists around the scene of the attack which is also the second in recent times, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of APC, Tony Okocha, said the the latest attack was uncalled for since the APC did not participate in the election.
He said the incident happened about 3:30 am when his admin staff called him to notify him of the attack adding that it was providence that prevented the complete destruction of the office apartment.
The explosion reportedly brought down the gate of the secretariat, while doors, windows and other property were also destroyed.
The State Police Command through its Spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko, said it was aware of the attack and would later send its statement on the incident.
Okocha said; “this morning at about 3:30am my phone kept ringing and when I picked up, it was my admin notifying me that our office had been attacked with explosives and again, thank God that at least the DPO has come here to see what happened. The luck we have is that the one they threw at this particular spot did not detonate or this building would have gone down.
“This one is the second attempt after they did the first time, they came back to set this building ablaze. Thank goodness, this structure is a rented apartment and what do you think the landlord will be feeling right now?
“So we want to tell Nigerians that we are under attack, our leaders are differently chased by their soldiers, by this I mean un-uniformed soldiers. They are chasing us everywhere and we are not budging so what they decided to do is to come and destroy our party secretariat. There is no voting unit here, it’s strictly APC so why the attack here. This is the second time. Every time there is an event that the governor and his team are involved, APC will be marked as scape goat.
“So please help us to let Nigerians know that APC and her members need security from the federal to be able to keep everybody who is a member of the APC safe.
Also speaking, a chieftain of the APC and former member of the House of Representatives Promise Dike said; “It’s a needless attack because APC as a party made it very clear that we are not participating in this election therefore we shouldn’t have been seen as a hindrance to this election because we have said we are not going to participate”.
He queried; “So why destroy or coming to destroy the party secretariat? What kind of act is that? I don’t really understand why this should be happening in Rivers State, a state where everyone is in dire need of peace.
“You have seen the activities of APC in Rivers State. It has always been peaceful demonstrations, press conferences. There is no one incident that is link to the APC, of violence or attack on property or lives of Rivers people. So we believe and will continue to preach peace but the act of coming to destroy our party secretariat is going beyond what it should be. So we condemn this act in totality and implore security agencies to ensure that proper investigation is carried out and those linked to this attack will brought to book.
