One of the gallant policemen that came to the rescue of the members of the All Progressives Congress, who were attacked in Okrika, Rivers State on Tuesday, is dead.
The APC confirmed his death in a statement.
It said: “We are sad to announce that one of the gallant policemen at the Okirika rally who was hit by the gunmen’s bullet has just died in BMH PH.”
The Eagle Online recalls that unknown gunmen had stormed the rally ground of the APC in Okrika, shooting sporadically and forcing party members and leaders to scamper for safety.
Policemen later arrived the scene after about five minutes of shooting.
Prior to invasion by the gunmen, there had been three explosions close to the school field where the rally was held.
Okrika is the hometown of the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan.
The party’s previous attempt to hold rally in the town was disrupted.
The APC statement condemned the continuing resort to violence by “a desperate Peoples Democratic Party, which, having seen the handwriting on the wall of its imminent defeat during the polls, is bent on making Rivers State ungovernable.
“Let the world see how PDP intends to ruin our economy by promoting insecurity in our State but God will surely protect us from all this madness.
“We urge the entire world not only to condemn this act of violence by the PDP Leadership but intervene by calling those behind these unwarranted attacks on our party faithful to order.”
The party therefore, called on security agencies to fish out all those behind “this ugly incident that disrupted the rally of our party and attend to them accordingly no matter who are those that sponsored the attack to reassure us that we are still citizens of this nation”.
The Rivers State APC Chairman, Dr. Ikanya Ibiamu, said: “With the success of the Okrika rally not minding the explosions and shooting to scare our people away from the rally ground, we have demonstrated character by uniting against the evil and darkness pervading our State.
“We heartily thank the great Okrika people for turning out en masse to welcome their Governor, Dr. Dakuku Peterside. Darkness cannot be allowed to prevail over light.
“We are happy that by this rally, the First Lady, Dame Jonathan Patience, whatever she stands for is destroyed and demystified. We are proud of the Okrika people and we are assured that they will demonstrate this during the election proper so that collectively we ensure that those threatening our lives will not succeed in their evil plots against our State.”