2015 Election: 4 feared dead, 15 injured in cross River

Palpable fear has gripped residents of Ekori commu­nity in Yakurr local government area of Cross River

State as supporters of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labo-ur Party (LP) clashed, with four feared dead and not fewer than 15 persons injured.

Daily Sun investigations revealed that houses and cars were destroyed while other valuables were van­dalised by the rampaging parties’ supporters.

The incident came barely one month after the four major political parties in the state signed an accord to maintain peace during and after the elections.

An eyewitness told Daily Sun that trouble started between the supporters of PDP and LP when PDP supporters barricaded the road leading to Ekori junc­tion apparently to stop the LP members from carrying out their rally in the com­munity.

The source said the LP supporters were infuriated by the action of the PDP supporters and decided to dismantle the roadblock, which later led to open con­frontation between parties’ supporters. Consequently, the situation snowballed into a serious fight and ex­change of gunfire by both groups.

“The Ekori crisis started on Monday and extended till Tuesday when LP sup­porters were arranging to receive one of their Reps candidate, Alex Egbona, for a campaign rally at Ekori. But PDP supporters objected and rather issued a warning that LP candidate should not come to their community. But LP people said no way, that PDP Reps candidate for Abi/Yakurr, Bassey Ewah, had just fin­ished campaigning at Eku­reku community of Egbona and that nobody stopped him so why should they stop their own candidate.

“LP, therefore, ignored them and arranged the pa­vilion at Ekori for the rally and then invited their can­didate to come over. On getting to Ekori junction, PDP supporters barricaded the road, leading to open confrontation between the two groups. “In the pro­cess, both supporters said to be well-armed with so­phisticated weapons and charms, started shooting sporadically at one an­other. In the midst of the confusion, they clashed and started firing at one an­other while some of them sustained serious injuries.

“It didn’t stop there, the PDP supporters moved on to the pavilion that was arranged for the rally and destroyed all the canopies and the chairs, forcing LP supporters to retaliate by descending on PDP group leading to a free-for-all and shooting. Many people sustained injuries for gun­shots and machete cuts.

“In the evening, PDP mobilised their support­ers and went from house to house beating up and maiming LP supporters and ended up killing two supporters of LP. And in retaliation, the LP and APC supporters re-grouped and fought back, allegedly kill­ing two persons said to be supporters of PDP,” the ac­count narrated.