On Monday April 3, armed policemen blocked the entrance of the Independent National Electoral Commission headquarters in Port Harcourt, to disperse a protest initiated by the Peoples Democratic Party members.
Over 1000 members of the PDP and their supporters had stormed the INEC office in Port Harcourt, demanding the commission to allow them to inspect the election materials alongside other political parties ahead of the election petitions tribunal sitting.
In lieu of this the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps bombarded the frontier of the INEC office to prevent any damage to the facility.
Te protest halted the movement of vehicles from the Waterlines area through to the GRA area of Aba Road in the metropolis.
The protesters marched toured the town carrying placards with several inscriptions such as, “Police have no power under the Electoral Act to declare results. We will resist it.”, “The joint inspection of materials is our right. We are ready”.
Speaking about the mass action, the chairman of Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state, Dr. Samhel Nwanosike, said the inspection must be jointly done by all parties involved.
Nwanosike stated,
“We are putting other political parties on notice. Rivers people have decided to keep watch n this INEC headquarters.
“We are aware that results have been uploaded in IREV over 95 percent. We are aware that the Certified True Copies of all the pilling unit result sheets is in INEC.
“Like they did in 2019 when policemen were writing a different result sheets to smuggle into INEC offices.
“Never again will it happen. We will not leave this place. We will be here everyday until the right thing is done.”
“It must be a joint inspection because a man who is coming to equity must come with clean hands.
“Inspection must be done jointly.so that we watch ea h other. We have wom election and the world has seen it and we will defend it with our blood.”