The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) clashed on Monday in Port Harcourt, the state capital of Rivers State, over the examination of voting materials.

Trouble began when Tonye Cole, the APC candidate in the March 18 election, and supporters of his party arrived at the INEC office in the state capital to inspect the voting materials used in the previous election.

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Cole, however, was compelled to go back by PDP members who had already arrived at the INEC office.

Chaos ensued as PDP members demanded a joint inspection of the 2023 general election results as well as Certified True Copies (CTC) of the result sheets.

Gunshots were heard although it was not confirmed if anybody was hit in the face-off at the electoral commission’s office.

The protest crippled vehicular activities from the Waterlines area through to the GRA area of Aba Road in the metropolis.

It will be recalled that the state governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Tonye Cole, had led a protest to the INEC office demanding the release of CTC documents of the March 18 election, leading to fears of inter-party clashes in the state.

Sim Fubara of the People’s Democratic Party PDP scored 302,614 votes to win the election in the Niger Delta state.

Tonye Cole of the All Progressives Congress had 95,274 votes while Beatrice Itubo of the Labour Party scored 22,224 votes to come third.

The 2023 Rivers State gubernatorial election took place on 18 March 2023, to elect the Governor of Rivers State, concurrent with elections to the Rivers State House of Assembly as well as twenty-seven other gubernatorial elections and elections to all other state houses of assembly