operatives of the state Police Command fired tear gas and shot the
lawmaker representing Rivers South-East Senatorial District, Senator
Magnus Abe, with rubber bullets.
Abe and the Chief of Staff, Government House, Port Harcourt, Chief
Tony Okocha, had gone to the venue of a rally organised by the Save
Rivers Movement, a mobilisation group of the All Progressives
Congress, at the College of Arts and Science in Rumuola, Port
Harcourt.
Unconfirmed report had it that two children who were on their way
to church in company with their mother, were choked to death by the
tear-gas.
Two rubber bullets, according to sources, hit Abe on the leg and
chest while Okocha and others took a large dose of the tear-gas.
At the Krisany Hospital in Port Harcourt, where the senator was
rushed to, the Medical Director, Dr. Mckay Anyanwu, said he
(lawmaker) had internal bleeding after being hit by the bullets.
Anyanwu told journalists that Abe came in a state of shock evidenced
by low blood pressure. He said, "He was unable to talk or eat and he
was feeling restless as a result of a traumatic shock. The implication
is that there is haemorrhage; this is a blood trauma, it is not a
sharp one.
"So, we don't know the layers that are affected. This can only be
detected through the use of MRI.
"We have given the necessary resuscitative medication. Bleeding
internally (haemorrhage).If you check the two sides of chests, the
affected side is so enlarged as compared to the unaffected area. "My
immediate concern was to revive him. It was later that I was told
that he was hit by rubber bullets."
A United States-based Nigerian news portal,Saharareportersreported
that Abe was later flown to an undisclosed hospital for further
treatment.
It was gathered that more than 25 Hilux vehicles loaded with
policemen stormed the venue of the rally at about 8.20am and began to
fire tear gas and rubber bullets.
The policemen who blocked both ends of Rumuola Road were said to have
destroyed canopies and communication equipment put in place for the
rally.
At Rumuokuta Roundabout, overzealous armed policemen harassed
motorists at will, stopped and searched their boots before turning
them back.
At the College of Arts and Science, a batch of policemen was seen
marching towards Rumuokuta Roundabout, chanting triumphant songs.
However, one of the victims of the police harassment was the Bureau
Chief of the Sun Newspaper, Mr. Chris Anucha, who was hit with the
nozzle of a gun.
"One of the policemen hit me with the nozzle of his gun and ordered
me to run," Anucha told some of his colleagues in Port Harcourt.
The incident had caused pandemonium within the area as passersby who
had inhaled tear gas scampered to safety.
Okocha,who later spoke on the attack, explained that he escaped death
by a whisker.
He accused the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Mbu, of
mobilising all the police formations in the state to cause confusion
at the venue of the rally.
He said, "The state police commissioner ordered operatives from all
formations to the venue of our rally.
"We had written the police to inform them that we would hold a rally
today(Sunday). But they still came here to destroy all that we put in
place for the rally."
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