How PDP Thugs Attacked, Injured Me At INEC Office — APC’s Tonye Cole
Mr. Tonye Cole, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the recently concluded election in Rivers State, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of sending thugs to attack and injure him on Monday, at the office of the Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Narrating his ordeal to newsmen, Cole said he alongside some party members went to INEC office in Port Harcourt to obtain documents used for the election to file a petition challenging the declaration of the PDP candidate, Siminialayi Fubara, as the winner of the election.
However, thugs attacked he and his followers, threw items on him, punched and injured him all in a bid to ensure that they do not get access to INEC office.
“We are supposed to be in a democracy and one of the tenets of democracy is that after an election, INEC being supposedly an impartial umpire will have documents and these documents are available to everybody who participated in the election. These are critical documents which when we take to an electoral tribunal, we will build our case upon that to the electoral tribunal.
“On Friday, we were at INEC, and we asked for these documents, but they have not given us a single one. We said we were coming back today (Monday) and because we said we are coming back today, the PDP organised 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,” Cole said.
According to Cole, the thugs chased after them when they ran to the APC office for safety.
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