A stray bullet has injured a protester during a clash between the supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, in front of the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, along Aba Road, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
It was gathered that PDP supporters stormed the INEC office on Monday demanding a joint inspection of election materials by all political parties.
Recall that 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.
According to PUNCH, the protesting youths raced towards Cole, who was in the company of the state APC Chairman, Emeka Beke, and other party leaders, and 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.
PUNCH reported that an eyewitness said 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.
However anti-riot policemen, soldiers and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC officers are in a show of force to avert further unrest.