PDP accuses police of attacking its members during a peaceful protest

chika ebuzor

November 18, 2016 6:44 AM

A protester sustained gunshot wounds and a reporter from Channels TV was allegedly rough-handled by the police.

Protesters (Illustration).

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers state has accused the police of attacking its members who were protesting peacefully.

According to reports, one man sustained gunshot wounds and a reporter from Channels TV was allegedly rough-handled by the police.

According to the police, the crowd was stopped to prevent a breakdown of law and order in the state, because the All Progressives Congress (APC) members were also holding a protest march.

Shedding more light on what happened, the Publicity Secretary, Samuel Nwanosike, said “What happened can never be a coincidence, every human being has his programme and policies. How would we have known that the APC has a protest today?

“The People’s Democratic Party members wrote to the party chairman, informing him that we wanted to pay a courtesy visit to the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly and we approached our various local government chairmen who agreed that they would accompany us. The President-General of GDI also told us that he was going to accompany us.

“But on our way to the Rivers State House of Assembly, we saw fierce-looking police officers, who attacked us with life ammunition and teargas. You can see injuries as I am talking to you now. Some of us are lying at various hospitals in the state.

“We want to say that Mr. President who is the father of all should call for an investigation immediately. In a democratic setting, we are supposed to be given a right to speak, associate and a right for assembly but we were being intimidated for no just cause.

“There was no APC crowd 500 or 100 metres close to us when we were walking to the Rivers State House of Assembly.

“It is not true, there was no confrontation, there was no quarrel; nobody knew the police were coming to attack us. They walk straight from their office and opened fire on us.”

APC members were also protesting because of the alleged refusal of the State House of Assembly to swear in two members of the party who were elected to represent their constituencies.

Recently, over 22, 000 repentant cultists surrendered their weapons in-line with the Rivers state amnesty program.

chika ebuzor