National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Fez Chinweizu, who spoke to newsmen, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, commended the Nigerian Army for its role in Oporoma, saying they helped to quell a situation that would have resulted in loss of lives.
Dismissing allegations that the army aided one of the political parties, Chinweizu said: “When political thugs started exchanging fire in Oporoma, the few policemen on ground disappeared. It took the timely intervention of the army to save the situation.”
He said that the five persons reported to have died during the exchange of fire by the thugs were rescued by the army and treated at the Military Hospital in Port Harcourt.
“We were very thorough in monitoring the election unlike several other NGOs that did theirs from hotel rooms in Yenagoa. I can tell you that nobody died on account of shooting in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area on the day of the election. The five persons that were reported dead were rescued by the army and treated at their hospital in Port Harcourt.”
Chinweizu said, if anybody truly died, their photos would have been all over the social media.
He expressed disappointment with the level of preparation by the Police for the election, saying that only about 50 men out of about 200 deployed to Southern Ijaw had riffles, adding that the Police also had problem with boats to ferry their men to Oporoma.
He said this was why the few that got to Oporoma fled during the exchange of fire by political thugs.
Chinwezu said that the shooting that occurred between the rival political thugs in Oporoma on that Saturday was unavoidable because as at 3p.m., materials for the election had not gone round the polling units in Southern Ijaw, a situation he said allegedly fuelled suspicions.
The group said that the presence of Governor Seriake Dickson at Oporoma on the election day swelled tension in the area , advising that there should be restriction on movement of VIPs to prevent an ugly occurrence at election venues.
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