Police stop protest by AAC supporters in River

_Rivers bans street protests...

The police yesterday in Port Harcourt stopped the protest embarked upon by supporters of the African Action Congress, AAC, at the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The policemen had cordoned off the INEC office in Port Harcourt, ahead of the planned resumption of collation of the governorship and state assembly election results. File: Police officer The protesters were marching to the INEC office to deliver their protest letter when the police men swooped on them using tear-gas. The Rivers State Government had on Thursday placed a ban on street protest in the state till further notice. 

The Commissioner of Information and Communications in the state, Emma Okah, had in a statement yesterday said that government has banned political protests in the state. Supporters of African Action Congress, AAC, and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP however defied the ban and gathered to stage protest in the state. AAC supporters, who had gathered very early, had planned to go to the INEC office to demand  immediate transfer of the Resident Electoral Commissioner in the state, Obo Effanga, and an outright cancellation of the election, while the destination of the PDP supporters was not known before the police intervened. 

Addressing news men, the Executive Director of Electorate Rights Defence and Education Network, ERDEN, David Adejola, described the action of the police as barbaric, adding that the police should not have dispersed the protesters who were peaceful. 

Save Rivers from crisis Adejola, however, urged the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, to immediately transfer Effanga from Rivers State, accusing him of alleged incompetence and bias. Adejola alleged that Effanga allowed inclusion of card carrying members of PDP to make list of Returning Officers, Presiding Officers and Electoral Officers for the exercise.