Tonye Cole Reportedly Beaten By Political Thugs In Port Harcourt

The Governorship Candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Tonye Cole, and the Chairman of the party, Chief Emeka Beke, have been attacked and beaten up by suspected political thugs in Port Harcourt.

This was as hundreds of supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, blocked all access through the Port Harcourt-Aba expressway to the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

It would be recalled that Friday, INEC had told Cole and his team to come to the office to pick the Certified True Copies of documents used in the conduct and declaration of the just concluded governorship and state house of assembly elections in the state to enable the APC file process at the tribunal.

But, Monday, hundreds of supporters of the PDP stormed the INEC office demanding that the electoral umpire release CTC of the documents of the election to them.

The PDP protesters blocked off all access points to the INEC office, insisting that they won the election and should be given copies of the documents.

However, while the PDP supporters were still in their push, the Guber candidate of the APC, Cole, Chairman of the party, Beke and a few other candidates of the party arrived.

The APC chieftains, who had arrived in the area on an alleged invitation of the INEC were stopped from accessing the commission’s office by the protesters.

Some of the youths, however, took the moment to rain heavily of the APC chiefs, chasing them away from the INEC facility.

The development snowballed into heavy shooting, grounding all activities as armed youths took the area hostage with gunfire.

The bandits who were shooting sporadically in the air moved freely from the former of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, opposite INEC and through the Polo Club then into the Government Reserved Area.

Although, no casualty has been recorded some cars reportedly owned by the APC chiefs were damaged.