One person sustained a gunshot injury after being hit by a stray bullet when supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress clashed in Port Harcourt on Monday.
Earlier, some members of the PDP protested in front of the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission along Aba Road in Port Harcourt.
The protesters demanded a joint inspection of election materials by all political parties.
The APC, led by its governorship candidate, Tonye Cole, had last Friday said it would storm the INEC office on Monday to demand the release of Certified True Copies of documents used for the March 18 governorship election to enable the party file processes at the election petition tribunal.
Our reporter who was at the scene reports that while the PDP protests festered, Cole in company of the state APC Chairman, Emeka Beke, and other party leaders showed up at the GRA area of Aba Road and was proceeding to the INEC office when the protesters sited him.
The protesting youths raced in his direction, pelted stones and water sachets at him.
The security operatives attached to Cole immediately shielded him and whisked him into the vehicle, but the protesters continued pelting sachet water in his direction.
Within minutes, soldiers of the 6 Division, Nigerian Army, operatives of the Nigeria Police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps arrived and shot into the air to disperse the protesters.
However, an eyewitness told our correspondent that one of the security men attached to Cole fired the shot which hit one of the protesters who was advancing towards him.
The man bled profusely on the floor due to a gunshot that injured his leg before friends carried and took him to the hospital.
Sensing that the PDP supporters were more, Cole’s security whisked him away from the scene, while the APC supporters there scampered for safety.
As of the time of filing this report, the GRA Junction near the INEC office in Port Harcourt is the centre of the battle.
However anti-riot policemen, soldiers and the NSCDC officers are in a show of force to avert further unrest.
Source : Punch
