Soldiers have barricaded the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium in Port Harcourt three days after Rivers State Governor, Chibuike Amaechi, said the facility couldn’t be used for President Goodluck Jonathan’s presidential campaign slated for Thursday.

A report in The Guardian said that scores of soldiers yesterday stormed the stadium and took over the entire facility.

“The soldiers used Hilux vans to block the main entrances and barred anyone from accessing the facility,” the report said.

The stadium, owned by the State Government, has been a bone of contention between the Rivers State Government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that had applied to use the facility for President Jonathan’s reelection campaign rally.

Governor Amaechi had last Thursday declared that the state would not grant the PDP permission to use the facility because of ongoing construction work, even though the APC used the same stadium on two occasions for its rally.

Rivers State PDP, however, rejected the excuse, threatening to forcefully use the stadium because Amaechi, who is Director-General of the Muhammadu Buhari Presidential Campaign Organisation, has allowed his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to use the facility twice in the past one month.