Explosion rocks Rivers APC secretariat

The secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abam Ama, Okrika in Okrika local government area of Rivers state, was on Sunday vandalised.

Last Tuesday, one person was killed while many sustained injuries when armed youth groups shot at vehicles conveying APC members from two local government areas to the inaugural presidential campaign of Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the party.

Christian Asifamaka, chairman of APC in Okrika, the hometown of First Lady Patience Jonathan, said Sunday’s incident, which occurred around 3am, was the handiwork of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Asifamaka said those behind the act threw dynamites into the building.

“The All Progressives Congress in Okrika views this latest attack as a deliberate provocation by our opponents, the People’s Democratic Party to draw the APC into a battle that would destabilize our beloved local government area,” the APC chairman said.

“This is unfortunate and the APC in Okrika would not allow Okrika to become a hotbed of crises as the PDP would wish.”

“We are Okrika people and we know what political crises has cost our people in the past. Our local government area has always been the worst hit in times of politics. Our young children are the ones they use as canon fodder. We know this and as a party have resolved to tow only the path of peace in the interest of our land and our children.”

Alleging that the party had been maintaining its calm despite past provocation, Asifamaka said the aim of the attackers was to create disunity in the community.

“We can list so many injustices against the people of Okrika by a federal government that is supposed to be sympathetic towards us, yet the APC has continued to tow the path of peace and unity and would continue to do so because we are Okrika people and we love our land,” he said.

“We beg our daughter to remember that the land of Okrika has never spared any Okrika person who brings trouble to the land or destroys it. We beg her to please call her people in the PDP to order because Kirikese is bigger than anyone of us and we should not destroy it.”