THE political crisis in Rivers State worsened on Sunday when operatives of the state Police Command fired tear gas and shot the lawmaker representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Senator Magnus Abe, with rubber bullets.....see more photos and more story after the cut
Abe and the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief Tony Okocha, had gone to the venue of a rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement, a mobilisation group of the All Progressives Congress, at the College of Arts and Science in Rumuola, Port Harcourt.
Unconfirmed report had it that two children who were on their way to church in company with their mother, were choked to death by the tear-gas.
Two rubber bullets, according to sources, hit Abe on the leg and chest while Okocha and others took a large dose of the tear-gas.
At the Krisany Hospital in Port Harcourt, where the senator was rushed to, the Medical Director, Dr. Mckay Anyanwu, said he (lawmaker) had internal bleeding after being hit by the bullets.
Anyanwu told journalists that Abe came in a state of shock evidenced by low blood pressure. He said, “He was unable to talk or eat and he was feeling restless as a result of a traumatic shock. The implication is that there is haemorrhage; this is a blood trauma, it is not a sharp one.
“So, we don’t know the layers that are affected. This can only be detected through the use of MRI.
“We have given the necessary resuscitative medication. Bleeding internally (haemorrhage).If you check the two sides of chests, the affected side is so enlarged as compared to the unaffected area. “My immediate concern was to revive him. It was later that I was told that he was hit by rubber bullets.”
A United States-based Nigerian news portal, Saharareporters reported that Abe was later flown to an undisclosed hospital for further treatment.
It was gathered that more than 25 Hilux vehicles loaded with policemen stormed the venue of the rally at about 8.20am and began to fire tear gas and rubber bullets.
The policemen who blocked both ends of Rumuola Road were said to have destroyed canopies and communication equipment put in place for the rally.
At Rumuokuta Roundabout, overzealous armed policemen harassed motorists at will, stopped and searched their boots before turning them back.
At the College of Arts and Science, a batch of policemen was seen marching towards Rumuokuta Roundabout, chanting triumphant songs.
However, one of the victims of the police harassment was the Bureau Chief of the Sun Newspaper, Mr. Chris Anucha, who was hit with the nozzle of a gun.
“One of the policemen hit me with the nozzle of his gun and ordered me to run,” Anucha told some of his colleagues in Port Harcourt.
The incident had caused pandemonium within the area as passersby who had inhaled tear gas scampered to safety.
Okocha,who later spoke on the attack, explained that he escaped death by a whisker.
He accused the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, of mobilising all the police formations in the state to cause confusion at the venue of the rally.
He said, “The state police commissioner ordered operatives from all formations to the venue of our rally.
“We had written the police to inform them that we would hold a rally today(Sunday). But they still came here to destroy all that we put in place for the rally.”
He also accused the supervising Minister of Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, of influencing the police to dislodge the APC supporters.
“I received a call from somebody highly placed, informing me that the Commissioner of Police had been reached by the Minister for Education … to dislodge our people today(Sunday) and I couldn’t place it.
“About 4.30am today(Sunday), our men on the ground called me to say that the police had taken over the place. I had to go there to see things.
“Tear gas was fired at me as if I was a rabbit. I ran into someone’s house and saw his children suffocating. We were quarantined in the man’s house.”
The state government also issued a statement in which it claimed that Governor Rotimi Amaechi was the target of the police attack.
The Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, who signed the statement, explained that Amaechi was billed to be present at the rally.
She described the shooting of Abe as an attack on innocent citizens and a rape of democracy.
The commissioner said, “The Rivers State Government has it on good authority that Senator Abe took the bullet originally meant for Governor Amaechi who was billed to be present at the event.
“This is disconcerting especially in the light of recent revelations that the Presidency may be training snipers ahead of the 2015 elections and that Governor Amaechi is top on the list of those to be eliminated.
“Today, Sunday January 12, 2014, Rivers State witnessed another senseless attack on innocent citizens in a continuous rape of democracy by the Joseph Mbu- led Rivers State police command.
“Today’s(Sunday) attack on members of the Save Rivers Movement, a non-governmental association at the College of Arts and Science, Rumuola, Port Harcourt, and especially the unprovoked shooting of Senator Abe, is cause for worry and an indication of the length that the PDP is willing to go to silence opposing views.”
The commissioner reiterated the call for Mbu’s redeployment before he turned the state into a graveyard through his unprofessional behaviour.
Semenitari appealed to the people of the state to remain law-abiding and not to take laws into their own hands, saying, “We promise to continue to use all legitimate and legal means to guarantee the safety of our people and their rights to exist in Nigeria.”
The state chapter of the APC described the incident as a premeditated attempt on the life of the senator.
“The APC is convinced that this attempted murder was premeditated. The senator only went to the rally to see how prepared the organisers were “ the party’s chairman in the state, Dr. Davies Ikanya, told journalists.
Ikanya, who claimed that “Abe was shot at close range,” added that Okocha was also injured while whereabouts of a former member of the state House of Assembly, Ike Chinwo, who was also at the venue, were unknown.
He said, “As we speak, Chinwo is missing because he was at the scene of the incident. He may have been taken away by the police. Five children are dead because of the intensity of the tear-gas. This is barbaric and it is not acceptable.”
But the Public Relations Officer of the state Police command , Mr. Ahmad Mohammad, said the organisers of the rally did not apply for a permit to hold the rally.
Mohammad however denied the claim that Abe was injured by policemen.
Mohammad said, “I can confirm to you that Senator Abe was not shot. The police did not expend any single bullet while dispersing the crowd.
“It is not true. The police did not shoot the senator, we only used minimum force to disperse the crowd at the venue of the rally. They (organisers) are telling lies about the situation.’’
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