By Onye Ebere, Port Harcourt
Explosion suspected to be from a miniature source Thursday sent shivers down the spine of the supporters of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers state, Tonye Cole.
When the pandemonium created by the Explosion settled, three persons were discovered to have sustained minor injuries, with others with scratch of injuries, all attributed to God’s intervention.
Speaking, Dr. Cole said no amount of gun threats or violence will stop the party’s campaign rally in the state.
Speaking at the Ojukwu Field, Rumuwoji, Port Harcourt, he said he was determined to forge ahead nothwistanding threats or attacks against his supporters, saying those were from quarters that want to weigh him down.
Recall that it took the APC hours to resolve the locking up of the venue by Rivers State government officials, which took some hours before APC could access the property.
It was while the supporters were assembling at the field that the Improvised Explosive Device (suspected to bottled kerosenebomb) detonated, causing the serious panic and fear.
An eyewitness stated: “We were at the Ojukwu field, Rumuwoji community waiting for the governorship candidate of the APC to address the people, when unknown person threw a ‘bottle bomb’ in the middle of the field.
“The IED exploded, which made many people at the venue run for their safety thinking it was a dynamite.
“One of the APC supporters ran with me to my shop immediately removed his T-shirt for fear of being lynched by the suspected thugs.
“A woman sustained a deep cut on her legs because pieces of bottle from device which landed on her on the leg”.
Addressing the APC supporter Cole said the election is not about party again, but about candidate’s popularity, and about who can make the difference and save the people from sufferings and hardship. Not to shoot gun to scare the people away.
“We are not afraid of election, we are not afraid of violence, we are not afraid of guns. Is not the first time they are shooting at me: they shot at old Bakana and ran away, they shot today, ran away and we started and finished our programme.
“We were there in Etche, they said it will not happen, Etche was a crowd. We were in Ikwerre yesterday, the crowd was bigger it shocked them.
“They said they will stop Port Harcourt rally. They will not stop us, tomorrow we will continue, our people will come out. APC is on ground”, Cole said.
