Police in Rivers State have extended invitation to the Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, for questioning over alleged killing of a protester in Port Harcourt, Monday.
The police in a letter sent to the state secretariat of the APC are alleging that an unnamed person was killed during the protest in Port Harcourt wherein supporters of the APC and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP clashed.
It would be recalled that hundreds of PDP supporters in a protest had on Monday barricaded the Port Harcourt-Aba express way preventing movements around the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
The protesters had stopped and manhandled Tonye Cole and the Chairman of the APC, Chief Emeka Beke, who were scheduled by the INEC for a visit to obtain Certified True Copies of documents it used in conducting and declaring the 2023 elections in the state, which they require to seek redress in court over the said polls.
Some armed thugs suspected to be part of the protesters had took siege of the INEC office shooting sporadically in the air without interruption from any secuity agency.
The gunmen had also attacked the secretariat of the APC in Government Reserved Area, before they were repelled by secuity men attached to the candidate and the party office.
However, a source privy to the invitation but did not want his name mentioned, disclosed that Tuesday, Rivers State Police Command sent in letter inviting Cole to appear before it.
The source disclosed that the letter was submitted to the state office of APC, as Cole had already jetted out for treatment after the attack on him, Monday.
The Spokesman of the Party, Darlington Nwauju, who confirmed the development regretted that the police failed to invite PDP leaders named in the attack on Cole, but is bent on intimidating the APC.
Nwauju said the same people who attacked leaders of APC and its candidate are the same people claiming that Cole killed a protester.
He said: “It is shocking that the police are inviting our Candidate, Cole, for questioning over a said killing. What is the identify of the person killed? They attacked and chased us away. They are now inviting him for questioning, how?”
However, the Chairman of APC in the state, Chief Emeka Beke, who said he has not seen the invitation, described it as laughable, adding that the Commissioner of Police is working for the PDP.
He said: “We were just seven of us and they were many. They did not even allow us get to the INEC office. Just by the GRA junction they started attacking us. At what point will anybody kill somebody?
“It is laughable. If somebody was killed it would been named from that point. I believe you have seen the videos trending, showing the level of guns they came with.
“The secuity should find out who are those people that came with guns. If it were in developed countries, police would have found out who the owner of that vehicle they were bringing out guns from is. And they will also use the video to know those that came with arms.
“We did not plan to come and do any crisis there. Just about seven of us came there, will the seven of us face that crowd?”
They have the commissioner of police working with them, so what do you expect. God is going to fight for us. They have the police, they have money.”
-Vanguard
CHECKPOINTCHARLEY 