Former Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe renewed their hostilities yesterday amid preparations by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the 2023 general election.
Hundreds of APC members loyal to Abe stormed the party secretariat on Woji Road, GRA, Port Harcourt, to protest alleged irregularities in the ward delegate elections.
But the protest ended in pandemonium, as policemen fired gunshots to disperse them.
The repeated gunshots created panic, forcing the protesters, reporters and passers-by to flee in different directions for safety.
It was gathered that aggrieved party members arrived at the secretariat and found that the gate of the facility was locked.
Trouble was said to have started when some of the youths tried to forcefully open the gate.
The development compelled policemen inside the secretariat to shoot into the air.
More security operatives were deployed in the place to clear the protesters.
Claims that one person was killed could not be verified, but some protesters sustained injuries.
The protesters carried placards with inscriptions such as: ‘APC Rivers, where are our forms’, ‘2018 repeats itself again in Rivers, no lesson learnt’, among others.
The aggrieved party members said a stakeholders’ meeting, which was supposed to hold with the panel sent by the APC national secretariat in Abuja to conduct the ward congresses, did not hold.
They also claimed that pro-Abe aspirants, who bought forms to contest the House of Assembly elections, were excluded from the screening.
The protesters alleged that the congress materials for the delegate poll were hijacked by party members loyal to Amaechi.
One of the aspirants, Mr. Chukwu, urged the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to ensure that the screening process of the aspirants was transparent.
Another aspirant for Oyibo, Innocent, blamed the NWC for not calling the state gladiators in the party to reconcile them.
Innocent advised the party to adopt direct primaries, to allow the masses vote for their choice of candidates and not indirect primaries.
He said: “We have not been called for any stakeholders meeting, no aspirant list has been published, we have not seen any delegates list, our names are not there. We don’t know what they are doing, so the national body should stop this crisis going on in this state”.
Addressing the protesters, one of the party leaders loyal to Abe, Tony Okocha, lamented the brute force meted out to them by the security operatives.
Okocha, a former Chief of Staff, said: “I am also a victim of the brute force procured by Amaechi and his ilk. I feel for you all.”
Stating their case against the party, he said: “The reason why we thought it wise to invite you, is to join us observe a transparent system, which ordinarily ought to begin with a stakeholders meeting with the panel deployed in Rivers State and later, distribution of materials and personnel to the 319 wards in the state. That never took place.
“The panel, upon arrival in Rivers State, was hijacked by Amaechi. He lodged the members in a hotel and handed down a script to enact.
“An attempt by party members to demand the implementation of the rules via a peaceful action, saw Amaechi and his group, deploying militants aided by the police, to sporadically shoot at harmless protesters, including you.”
The Nation
