Fresh facts have emerged on what was responsible for the attack on All Progressives Congress(APC) rally in Port Harcourt.
This is emerging at the backdrop of the police and state Governor, Nyesom Wike’s view point that it was an internal crisis within the community that led to the fracas at the rally ground.
Denouncing the stand of the police and the governor at a press conference in Port Harcourt, on Friday, the spokesman of APC campaign council in the state, Barr. Sogbeye Eli, argued that if it was an internal wrangling within the community that led to the attack why was an APC youth from Abua/Odual local goverment area, Mr. Lucky Ottos residing in the area attacked in the evening of that day who was not from the community if the issue was a community problem.
Eli challenged the police for their comment that it was an internal problem, pointing out that such statement was prejudicial and not a product of investigation.
He said the problem why police cannot achieve convictions in many criminal matters was that they speak without investigation.
The spokesman reiterated that what happened on that day was an attempt by the ruling party to intimidate, chase away APC supporters and not what the commissioner of police said.
He said similar thing was done in Etche LGA where the venue of the campaign was disrupted only for the ruling party to say that the disruption was as a result of the inability of APC to pay the crowd that led to the disturbances.
He urged the police to be neutral, adding that there has been an attempt by the ruling party not to allow the opposition political parties to campaign.
Eli pointed out that other parties in the state, including Social Democratic Party(SDP) have been victims of thuggery attack .
He, therefore, urged PDP and their governor to imbibe the culture of democracy by tolerating opposition to enable Rivers people have option to their political destiny.
In the same vein, the Rumuwoji Community Council (RCC) in Abali, Rebisi, Port Harcourt local Government Area of Rivers State has refuted claims by the Nigeria Police that it was chieftaincy issue and sharing of N200,000 paid by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that caused crisis during APC rally in the community, on Thursday, 19th January,2023.
The chairman of the Community, Ike Wigodo, in a statement on Friday described the police statement as mischievous, saying he expected the police to have conducted proper investigations into the matter before rushing to issue a statement.
Wigodo said that Rumuwoji Community remains one and united under his leadership as against the claim of factionalisation made by the police.
He said, “To set the record straight, Rumuwoji Community Council is not factionalized. We are united under my leadership. Members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the community were the ones who attempted to disrupt the APC rally in the community, even after the APC had secured the use of the community playground to hold its rally.
“They wanted me to deny APC the use of the space but I refused because APC had paid N200,000 for the use of the space.
” I reminded them of our resolution in October last year, when we took a decision that any political party that wants to use the playground should pay the sum of N200,000.00 and since APC had paid, they should allow them to use the space. I insisted that we can not change our decision at the middle of the game. But some of them were not comfortable because they are PDP members.
” So, it was not a chieftaincy or leadership tussle as claimed by the police. It’s purely a political crisis between PDP and APC members in the community.
“Members of the community belong to different political parties including APC and PDP. Of course, they are free to belong to any political party of their choice. No one should intimidate another for exercising this freedom. That’s the beauty of democracy.
“Rumuwoji is a peaceful community, therefore, we should not allow politics to tear us apart or bring disunity among us”.
Wigodo called on members of the community to be calm and go about their normal businesses without fear.
He also called on the Police to maintain neutrality in the electoral process as well as protect the electorate before during and after the election.
