INEC worker affirms Fakorede ordered shooting of Gberegbe

An ad hoc employee of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Rivers State during the March 9 election, Mr. Marvin Kpia-ue, has affirmed that the Commander of Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad (F-SARS) in the state, Akin Fakorede, ordered the shooting of Dr. Ferry Gberegbe at the collation centre.

Kpia-ue, who sustained gunshot injury, said he saw the F-SARS commander when he whispered to his men, stressing that the shooting was as a result of his verbal directive.

Two witnesses, who appeared before the panel on Wednesday, had affirmed that Fakorede, including two other F-SARS officers, shot Gberegbe.

While testifying yesterday, the INEC ad-hoc employee, said the shooting, which led to the death of Gberegbe, disrupted the collation process.

He said: “An uproar started when a lightly tinted Hilux van drove into the INEC premises conveying Akin Fakorede and other F-SARS men. At that point, a warning tape that was used to barricade everyone from the collation centre was removed.

“Then the unarmed civilians there started an outcry, shouting Akin Fakorede, you have come to subvert the will of the people, it will not work, this is Ogoniland.

“I saw one F-SARS officer approached the passengers’ side of the van, put his head into the vehicle and was whispered to by his boss. The next thing I heard was sporadic gunshots by the F-SARS officers.

“During the pandemonium, I noticed a People’s Democratic Party (PDP) agent, Dr. Ferry Gberegbe, on the ground groaning in pain after being hit by a bullet on his lower abdomen and was later taken to Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital where Dr. Nsirim took charge of my case.”

Meanwhile, the PDP in Rivers State has described the testimony of the Commander F-SARS that Gberegbe died of food poisoning as heartless, callous and unimaginably conscienceless.

Chairman of the party in the state, Felix Obuah, said this when he appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Army, Human Rights, Justice and Police Affairs in Port Harcourt.

Obuah said that for Fakorede to deny involvement and responsibility for that barbaric act on the day of the election has cast a big question mark not only on his mental health, but also on his very essence as a human being.

He, therefore, asked the House committee to dismiss Fakorede’s testimonies for lacking in merit, inconsistency and self-contradictory.