Explosion Rocks APC Secretariat In Okrika LGA In Rivers

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, Nigeria 2015 Election Sunday, January 11th, 2015

FROM IGNATIUS OKPARA – Less than a week that supporters of All Progressive Congress APC in River state, narrowly escaped death in the hands of unknown gunmen on their way to Port Harcourt, the party’s secretariat in Okirika Council Area of the State, Sunday came under attack by armed hoodlums, who threw dynamite into the office.

Destroyed APC office in Okrika LGA

At least, three members of the party were inflicted with various degrees of machete cuts during the attack.

The party faithful in the Area, were preparing for a rally in Rumueme, Obio/Akpor Local Government council before the ugly incident.

Chairman of APC in Okrika Local Government Area, Mr. Christian Asifamak, who narrated how the ground floor of a three-storey building housing the party secretariat was attacked, said that some unidentified person had thrown a dynamite in the secretariat, which exploded at about 3.14am today, Sunday.

The APC chieftain disclosed that the incident happened at Abam Ama community.

According to the chairman, his office was worse hit as the entire wall was pulled down by the explosion.

He said “In the early hours of the morning of Sunday January 11, 2015, some unknown group of persons threw dynamite into the party secretariat of our party, the All Progressives Congress in Abam Ama, Okrika Local Government Area.

“The explosion which occurred at 3:14am exactly destroyed our secretariat, bringing down the walls. The damage was quite extensive with the chairman’s office being the worse hit.

“The All Progressives Congress in Okrika views this latest attack as a deliberate provocation by our opponents, the People’s Democratic Party PDP, to draw the APC into a battle that would destabilize our beloved local government area.

“This is unfortunate and the APC in Okrika would not allow Okrika to become a hotbed of crises as the PDP would wish,” he stated.

Asifamake, stressed that the PDP’s resort to violence was as a result of its knowledge that Okrika people had rejected them because of their inability to attract any meaningful development to the area.

“Till now the East-West Road through which we access our community has been left abandoned by a PDP- led Federal Government, while Governor Chibuike Amaechi, who is not an Okrika man built a ring road in Okrika and also rebuilt the portion of the Federal Government road that links the council to the Port Harcourt refinery.

“We however, wish to warn our brothers in the PDP to remember that the land of Okrika has been known to defend itself and its people against aggression and that any Okrika person who brings crisis to the land answers for it,” he warned.

In Rumueme, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area, three out of four members of the APC, who were reported attacked with cutlasses, were rushed to the Kesley Harrison Hospital in Port Harcourt.

The APC leader in Obio/Akpor and a House of Representatives candidate, Chief Tony Okocha, told newsmen that a chief from Warri, Delta state, who had come to Rumueme to be part of the APC rally on Sunday, was said to have been hit several times.

Okocha, who said he personally drove the three injured members of the APC to the hospital, expressed worry over the whereabouts of the chief.

The intending lawmaker, further explained that members of the APC were almost exhausting their patience over the continued attack by PDP members, warning that his party may resort to self-help should the police fail to do their job and right thing expected of them.