Chairman of Rumuwoji Community Development Committee (CDC) in Port Harcourt Local Government Area of Rivers State, Ike Wigodo says the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was too hasty to conclude there was no explosion at the Rumuwoji Town Hall and Playground, popularly known as Ojukwu Field.
Wigodo, who said this in a telephone interview with Kristina Reports on Thursday, January 19, 2023, further said the cause of the fracas that led to the explosion was the attempt to enforce executive orders 22 and 23 on a facility that neither owned by the State Government or Local Government Council.
“It is called Rumuwoji Town Hall and Play Ground; they are not government facilities; they don’t belong to the State or Local Government Council. They belong to the Rumuwoji Community.”
He told Kristina Reports that “though I was not there, I received several calls from home that an explosion happened and several persons were injured as a result of the explosion,” adding that “it is too early for the police to conclude that there was no explosion”.
The Police had dismissed news of the explosion via a statement by its Public Relations Officer in the State Command, Grace Iringe-Koko, a Superintendent of Police (SP), saying it was a fracas caused by disagreements between the leaders of Rumuwoji Community over sharing of money and had no political coloration.
Allwell Ene, a Correspondent with Classic 91.1FM, who said he was present at the venue of the incident, had broken the news on his verified Facebook account that twin dynamites were hurled into the crowd at the Ojukwu fields where a campaign rally by the All Progressives Congress (APC) was taking place.
He supported his claim with several pictures of injured persons receiving treatment after the explosions. This went viral within the hour with several media platforms syndicating the information.
Publicity Secretary of the APC, Darlington Nwauju, confirmed the incident, describing it as ‘unfortunate and an act that could take Rivers State to old paths of bloodshed for nothing”.
On his part, the governorship candidate of the APC, Tonye Cole, on his verified Twitter handle, condemned the incident, saying that “violence has no place in our politics,” lamenting that “I was deeply sad to see some of our supporters injured by an explosion at our rally at Ojukwu Field, Mile One, Diobu, Port-Harcourt”.
He stated that “prior to the rally today, we had consulted the Police over reports of threats to attack us,” urging his supporters and party faithful to remain calm.
The CDC Chairman, who is also the Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Rivers State Council, explained that trouble started when an APC chieftain came to pay the N200,000 the community agreed to be charging for the use of the town hall and playground back in October 2022.
“We had agreed, me and my exco, back in October (2022) that we’re going to charge N200,000 for any group or political party that wants to use the town hall and play ground. Problem is that my exco members are all PDP members, except me that does not belong to any political party.”
“When members of my exco were telling the APC people who came to pay for the hall that they should go and get approval from the local government and police clearance, I told them that they are not affected by executive orders 22 and 23. So, no need for that.”
“They wrote a petition against me to the Police and I was invited by the DPO Mile 1 when the Area Commander came and we all went to see the Commissioner of Police where I told the CP the same thing.”
This particular incident is seen in many quarters as a signal that there might be violence across the State as the incumbent struggles to emplace his party’s candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, who is believed to be his sister’s son, as his successor.
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