By Sunday Stephen<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tension erupted in parts of Rivers State on Friday after armed men suspected to be political thugs attacked the convoy of former governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, shortly after suspected arsonists burned down a ward office of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in his hometown.
The attack occurred along the Ubima\u2013Omuanwa road in Ikwerre Local Government Area as Amaechi travelled to his community to complete his electronic registration as a member of the party.
Sources said the assailants, believed to be hired thugs, had earlier mounted a roadblock ahead of the former minister\u2019s arrival around 12:15 p.m., turning back buses suspected to be conveying ADC supporters to the event.
Tension had already escalated the previous night when the ADC ward office in Ubima, Amaechi\u2019s country home, was set ablaze by unidentified attackers.
Witnesses said the assailants stormed the community amid heavy gunfire, shooting sporadically and riddling the gate of Amaechi\u2019s family residence with bullets in what appeared to be a calculated attempt to disrupt the politician\u2019s visit.
Trouble intensified when Amaechi\u2019s convoy attempted to enter the community. The armed men reportedly blocked the road and confronted the convoy, triggering a brief but fierce gun duel with security operatives attached to the former governor.
However, the security personnel quickly gained the upper hand. Overpowered by superior firepower, the attackers fled into nearby bushes, allowing Amaechi and his entourage to proceed safely.
Addressing hundreds of supporters who gathered for the e-registration exercise afterward, Amaechi urged calm and warned against retaliation.
\u201cI will thank the Commissioner of Police and the Director of DSS. They showed a lot of professionalism immediately I made contact with them,\u201d he said.
\u201cIn fact, I wasn\u2019t expecting that kind of cooperation. I thought they would be behind these criminals and not render support. But all of us will agree that the police came out, the NSCDC came out, and the DSS came out. So we are grateful to them.\u201d
Amaechi, who later inspected the burnt party office, insisted that security agencies must go further by arresting and prosecuting those responsible for the attacks.
\u201cBut they must also know that this cannot continue. The way they will show us that this cannot continue is that they must prosecute those involved in this crime,\u201d he said.
The former governor also urged the Rivers State government to strengthen security across the state to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
\u201cI have been a governor, and I know the consequences of not protecting the lives of people,\u201d he warned.
\u201cThe people will begin to protect their lives themselves because they don\u2019t want to die.\u201d
Despite the violence, Amaechi urged ADC members to remain peaceful and stay focused on political mobilisation ahead of future elections.
\u201cOur role is to be calm and peaceful. We are marching to Aso Rock. What they are doing is a distraction,\u201d he said.
\u201cWe are hungry. If you are not hungry, tell them I am hungry. People are dropping dead every day because of hunger. A few people are stealing our money and they say we should keep quiet. We can no longer keep quiet.\u201d
He called on party members in Rivers State to register en masse, saying the party must build a formidable base capable of surprising its opponents at the polls.
\u201cADC Rivers State, you must register en masse. On election day, they will know whether we will vote or not,\u201d he declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Sunday Stephen Tension erupted in parts of Rivers State on Friday after armed men suspected to be political thugs attacked the convoy of former governor, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, shortly after suspected arsonists burned down a ward office of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in his hometown.The attack occurred along the Ubima\u2013Omuanwa road in Ikwerre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mlcqvjhyzqda.i.optimole.com\/cb:UNMm.7bb\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frontlinenewsng.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/images-85.jpeg?fit=547%2C365&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4181,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions\/4181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}