Gunshots are heard in Port Harcourt as APC and PDP members clash over the inspection of election materials

Tonye Cole, an APC candidate for governor in the March 18 election, was prevented from entering the INEC headquarters by several PDP participants.

Gunshots were reported on Monday in Port Harcourt, the state capital of Rivers State, when members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fought over the examination of voting materials.

Tonye Cole, the APC candidate for governor in the March 18 election, and members of his party arrived at the INEC headquarters in the state capital to verify the voting materials used in the most recent election in the state. This is when trouble began.

But, PDP members who were already present at the INEC office when Cole arrived compelled him to turn around.

Chaos resulted as PDP members sought a joint scrutiny of the results and Certified True Copies of the result sheets for the just finished general elections in 2023.

The two main entrances to the INEC headquarters were blocked by PDP protesters: the waterlines and GRA portions of Aba Road. As there is no way out for those on the GRA flyover, no automobile was able to get through that section of the Aba road from the ground lanes.

Edison Ehie, the re-elected Deputy Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, and Samuel Nwanosike, the Chairman of the Ikwerre Local Government Area, led the PDP protest.

Notwithstanding the fact that the party had won both the governorship and the State Assembly, the Deputy Speaker of the Legislature, who was also in charge of organising the protest, urged that INEC allow the party a joint review of the election-related documents on March 18.

The demonstrators were of the opinion that their demand would bring about the essential level of openness to prevent pointless legal disputes and discussions.

In addition to calling for a joint scrutiny of the materials, several of the posters used during the demonstration also asked INEC to provide Certified True Copies of the results.