3 injured in Port Harcourt as explosion rocks venue of APC Governorship rally

Three people were feared injured on Thursday from an incident suspected to be an explosion at the popular Ojukwu field on Afikpo street Mile 1 Diobu area of Port Harcourt.

Information about the incident has been confusing and varied with many saying it was not anything serious while others claim it could have been either an explosion from dynamite or a card.

Also confusing is the circumstance surrounding the incident. Said to be at the site of an All Progressives Congress APC Governorship Rally even with the Governorship candidate, Pastor Tonye Cole boasting that no threat could stop the party to carry on with its campaign activities in the state.

The governorship candidate was said to have made the declaration while speaking to a crowd of party supporters after the incident.

However, others said that the venue had early that morning been sealed up from any political activity but later opened for the use of the APC campaign.

A resident of the area who spoke to Nigerian Tribune on the conditions of anonymity said he saw the field locked up in the morning while he was on the way to work, but as he was returning from work in the afternoon he discovered that the place had been reopened.

He said that some APC members who were around the field in the morning insisted that they met all preconditions for the use of the venue, especially as the field was not government-owned but a community playground belonging to the Rumuwoji community.

Unfortunately, no official of the APC has agreed to make any statement on the matter as inquiries to some of the in the publicity department of the governorship campaign council all claimed ignorance of what happened.

Also, efforts to the reaction of the police could not yield any result as all calls to her line could not connect as her phone was reported to be switched off.

Meanwhile, a visit to the field yielded no reasonable clue to the incident as there was no sign of any destruction but a police stop and search time was at the Ikwerre Road Junction leading to the field conducting stop and search operation with a special focus on vehicles passing that route.

Young men in commercial buses were seen ordered down of the vehicle and thoroughly frisked up to their personal belongings.

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