The candidate of All Progressives Congress in the March 18 gubernatorial elections, Pastor Tonye Cole has said that the Governorship tribunal cannot hold in Rivers state.
Cole who stated this while reacting to the attack on him and some leaders of APC by thugs allegedly sent by Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), on their way to INEC office to obtain documents used for the election to file a petition, challenging the declaration of PDP candidate, Siminialaye Fubara, as winner of the election, observed that it was too dangerous to site the tribunal in the state, considering the incessant attacks on opposition parties.
He said, ”Our investigation shows that they have been paid N15,000 a day to prevent us from accessing the INEC office. Now, it is not a coincidence that by Friday, we will be out of time; we will not be able to file our case; we will not get any document. So, I am escalating this to INEC national and Inspector-General of Police.Tribunal cannot hold in Rivers state. It is obvious it’s too dangerous”.
Meanwhile, one person was reportedly injured as PDP and APC supporters clashed at the GRA junction on Monday.
It was gathered that trouble started when the APC governorship candidate , Tonye Cole who was billed to inspect election materials at the INEC office arrived the GRA junction and was resisted by protesting PDP supporters, which led to a clash between the parties.
It was also gathered that it took the efforts of security operatives who fired sporadic gunshots in the air to quell the clash.
However, it was learnt that luck ran out on one of the PDP supporters who was hit by a stray bullet which aggrevated supporters of PDP to storm and attack the APC secretariat in Port Harcourt.