No fewer than five persons were feared dead in Ikot Ekpene yesterday as supporters of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) clashed with those of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). The campaign train of the CAN, led by its gubernatorial candidate, Senator John Udoedehe, was in Ikot Ekpene but was allegedly attacked by the PDP supporters. The ACN supporters were said to have fought back.

In the ensuing fracas, Daily Sun learnt that two persons were killed on the spot while three others, who were carried away from the scene died before they got to Uyo.
The ACN candidate is from Uyo Federal Constituency while his PDP counterpart and the sitting Governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, is from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District.

Apart from the lives lost, at least one filling station, and a house along Uyo-Ikot Road, was burnt. More than 20 vehicles were damaged while hundreds of supporters of both parties sustained various degrees of injury.
Some ACN supporters, who managed to escape from Ikot Ekpene, allegedly vented their spleen on government and private property in Uyo, damaging vehicles and shops suspected to be owned by PDP supporters. They burnt President Goodluck Jonathan’s campaign office along Aba Road secretariat and set ablaze over 500 new vehicles.

Sources in Ikot Ekpene told Daily Sun that trouble started when the ACN was denied access to the venue of their rally.
“The real theatre of the crisis was the Iko Ekpene - Umuahia Road junction. From there they moved to Anwa Udoaka where the filling station was burnt.”
He blamed the crisis on ACN members, who tried to force their way through the town even after they had seen that it was not safe for them to hold the rally there.
“They had been warned that no other party except PDP should come for campaign in Annang land. So why did they come?”
But the ACN supporters said they were attacked even when they never provoked violence while on the campaign.
“We will fight back. It is not over till it is over,” he said.

A police in Ikot Ekpene area command confirmed the story but said only two persons were killed.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Sani Magaji, said he was busy when Daily Sun called. He asked for time but could not pick his call again when called back.
However, the state Commissioner for Information, Aniekan Umanah, absolved Government Akpabio of involvement in the crisis. He said the governor was campaigning in another local government area as at the time of the crisis and it could not, therefore, be said to be a clash between the PDP and ACN supporters.
Umanah blamed the mayhem on thugs of the ACN and its gubernatorial flagbearer, Udoedehe.
Meanwhile, security agents have moved in to restore order to the city.


http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2011/mar/23/national-23-03-2011-01.htm