How I was beaten up around INEC office – Rivers APC gov’ship Candidate

Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State, Tonye Cole, has narrated how he was beaten up by suspected political thugs around the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Monday.

Last Friday INEC had told Cole and his team to come to the office to pick the Certified True Copies of documents used in the conduct and declaration of the just concluded governorship and state house of assembly elections in the state to enable the APC file process at the tribunal.

But, Monday, hundreds of supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stormed the INEC office demanding that the electoral umpire release CTC of the documents of the election to them.

Daily Trust had earlier in the day reported how many people sustained injuries as supporters of the PDP and the APC clashed in Port Harcourt over the inspection of electoral materials used for the March 18 governorship election in Rivers State.

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In a chat with Channels TV, Cole said he was injured during the incident.

According to him, he was denied access to the electoral materials at the office of the electoral umpire last Friday, saying “they have not given us a single one”.

He said: “We said we were coming back today (Monday) and because we said we are coming back today, the PDP organized thugs everywhere to prevent us from getting to the INEC office.

“I wasn’t deterred and so I went with my party chairman, the women leader, the youth leader, and senior officials of the APC to the INEC office.

“They had barricaded the road from GRA Junction, everywhere boys, girls. They began to assault me, I came out and a woman began to drag my shirt, they pulled me from the back, first, they were throwing water then they began to throw food and the next minute they started throwing stones.

“The next thing after that, we started hearing gunshots, it took my security people to forcefully evict me.

“They destroyed our vehicles, they injured me. They slapped me, they punched me, they pulled my shirt, they dragged me, and then threw stones at me until I was injured in the back.”