Some party members at the APC Secretariat in Rivers State after explosion hit the property on Saturday October 5, 2024.
By James Amadi
A heavy explosion has rocked the Tony Okocha-led secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and other buildings along Aba Road, Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, as the state holds it local government elections on Saturday October 5, 2024.
Though no group claimed responsibility for the incident, which shattered the gate and doors of the secretariat, the factional Chairman of APC in Rivers State, Tony Okocha, alleged that was politically motivated and blamed the governor, Siminalayi Fubara, whom he said had earlier declared war over the local government election.
Okocha also narrated the incident to Channelstv: “About 3:20am some gun-trotting young men with their explosives and all that, came here and dropped the first explosive, maybe because the one they dropped here did not detonate, they came back the second time to burn the structure – look at the security house is gone.
“Behind me you will see that there was also an attempt, our people came and we were able to quench the fire.
“Is APC secretariat here any voting unit? There is no voting unit here. So, it was deliberate to see how they can annihilate us. It is deliberate to see how they can embarrass us; it is deliberate to see how they can decimate us.”
Also read: Rivers crisis: Fubara swears in Caretaker Committee Chairmen
The police are yet to comment on the incident.
Amid controversies surrounding the Rivers local government poll, accreditation and voting has started in many polling centres around Port Harcourt City.
Police authorities in the state had said that they would not provide security for the exercise, citing a court order.
However, RSIEC late Friday said that the election would go on as scheduled.
“For the avoidance of doubt, we emphasize unequivocally that the October 5, 2024 Local Government Council Elections in Rivers State would hold as scheduled, and there is no going back,” RSIEC said in a statement by its Commissioner for Civil Education/Public Affairs, Tobin Tamunotonye.
Quoting the RSIEC LAW of 2018 and the judgment of Hon Justice I.P.C. Igwe of the High Court of Rivers State delivered on September 4, 2024, and the 1999 Constitution, he said that the agency was empowered to conduct local government elections in the state.
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