Five children of Rivers State extraction died when the police forcibly stopped a rally of the State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party has said.

In a second statement on the incident, Chief Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, Senior Special Aide on Media and Publicity to Interim State Chairman, Dr. Davies Ibiamu Ikanya, alleged that the five were shot dead by men of the Nigeria Police.

Eze also alleged that the police took away an APC lawmaker, Hon. Ike Chinwo, and demanded his immediate release.

News Express earlier reported that Senator Magnus Abe, Senator representing Rivers South East zone and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), and Chief Tony Okocha, the Chief of Staff to Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, were hit by rubber bullets during the rally organised by the Save Rivers Movement at the College of Arts and Science, Rumuola, Port Harcourt.

Accusing the State Police Commissioner, Joseph Mbu, of ordering the shooting, Eze said in the statement: “We wish to make it clear that the blood of the five innocent kids that were slaughtered by the Police are on CP Mbu’s head and also on the heads of his sponsors. We meanwhile appeal to Nigerians to join us in praying for the survival of Senator Abe and Chief Okocha. By God’s grace, we shall overcome as the plot of intimidation will not deter us from salvaging Rivers State from the PDP led Federal Government whose hatred and disdain on our people are now legendary.

“Dr Ikanya demands for the immediate release of Hon. Ike Chinwo within 24 hours unfailingly who was arrested by the Police after the mayhem for no just cause.”

The incident comes barely one week after the bombing, last Monday, of the High Court in Ahoada and razing of the High Chief Magistrate’s Court in Okehi, both in Rivers State – acts which the Nigerian Bar Association has attributed to politics and given the federal government one month to probe.

The political atmosphere in Rivers State has been charged for several months as a result of the quarrel between Governor Amaechi and President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife patience. The situation worsened following the defection, last November 26, of Amaechi and his loyalists from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to APC.

•Photo shows Senator Magnus Abe being attended to in the hospital.