The All Progressives Congress (APC), has accused the Rivers State government of sponsoring those participating in the ongoing nationwide #Endbadgovernance protest to vandalise its state secretariat in Port Harcourt.
This is as the protesters yesterday forced shop owners and motorists within Port Harcourt metropolis and its environs to mount leaves in front of their shops or their vehicles or risk not being allowed to move around freely.
APC caretaker committee chairman in the state, Chief Tony Okocha, who spoke with journalists in Port Harcourt yesterday, said those who vandalised the party secretariat threatened to come back again for another attack.
Tony Okocha: „Today, the issue in point is the vandalisation of the APC secretariat situated at 268B Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway by hoodlums, who were arranged, sponsored by a source, which in course of this our engagement, I will reveal. I will name the source; we are not scared to name the source because the situation had become so political.
“And of course, you ask yourself; why is it that it is the APC office that was targeted for destruction? Millions of those attacks will not stop reggae. It will not stop us from speaking for the people of Rivers State. It will not stop us from being diametrically opposed to a governor and a government that is clueless. It can‘t.
“Our secretariat was attacked yesterday and they left us with a note that they are coming back again.
We don‘t know whether coming back again will be today or in future. It was about 5:00pm yesterday that they vandalised our secretariat complex. We pre-empted them because we knew and we anticipated what they will do.
„We have information that they had been paid to destroy our party secretariat. And who is paying them? They are being paid and sponsored by the government of Rivers State. Their interest, as far as we are concerned is not make Rivers State the epicenter of the protest.“
But, in a swift reaction, the Rivers State government denied sponsoring protesters to attack the APC secretariat, saying that it is not in the character of the present administration to embark on such ugly venture.
The state commissioner for Information and Communications, Warisenibo Joe Johnson, stated this yesterday in a chat with LEADERSHIP in Port Harcourt, the state capital.
Johnson said: „It is not in our character; it is not in our bloodline to destroy other people‘s things. The governor spoke to the protesters and Femi Falana, SAN, was one of those who commended Governor Fubara for speaking to the protesters and it turned to celebration. We do not have such tendency.“