The men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) have allegedly fired teargas and disrupted the collation of results during the ongoing local government elections in Rivers State.
According to reports, officials of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission and voters ran for their lives when the armed men dressed in police uniform arrived at Elekahia Primary School in Port Harcourt City Local Government shooting teargas and seizing election materials.
About 21 Hilux Patrol Vans with heavily armed men were spotted driving into the venue from Elekahia Road and immediately fired several tear gas.
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Several ballot papers were also said to have been scattered at the entrance of the collation centre.
Speaking with Channels TV, some of the voters said the voting process was already over and counting concluded before the disruption.
While it reported that no police officer was at the scene to give the account of what transpired, the Rivers State Police Command promised Channels to release an official statement on the incident.
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Earlier, RSIEC commenced the distribution of sensitive materials to LGAs for the conduct of the election.
In the early hours of Saturday, voting commenced in several LGAs, with voters casting ballots in some polling units while others awaited election materials’ arrival.
An explosion reportedly rocked the secretariat of the All Progressives Congress faction led by Tony Okocha, the ex-chairman of the APC caretaker committee in the state, hours before commencement of the election.
Speaking to Channels Television, Tony Okocha alleged that the incident was politically motivated and blamed the governor, Siminalayi Fubara, whom he said had earlier declared war over the local government election.
“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,” Okocha said.
There has been palpable tension in Rivers due to the prolonged turf war between Fubara, and Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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On September 30, a Federal High Court in Abuja barred the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from releasing the 2023 voter register to the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC).
The court also barred the inspector-general of police and the Department of State Services (DSS) from providing security for the exercise.
On October 2, INEC said it had not released the voter register to RSIEC for the conduct of the election, in deference to the judgment of the federal high court.
On October 3, a crowd besieged the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital, to protest against the planned local government election.
However, Fubara vowed to proceed with the election.
On Friday, Fubara arrived at RSIEC office in Port Harcourt over claim that police officers wanted to stop the election.
Police operatives had barricaded the facility where electoral materials are kept.
Fubara said the presence of police officers at the RSIEC premises was unnecessary, accusing the IGP of taking orders from Wike to truncate the election.
Reacting to Fubara’s comments, the NPF said its actions in Rivers conformed with the judgment of the federal high court.
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