How we arrested suspected bomber – Rivers govt

How we arrested suspected bomber – Rivers govt

The Rivers State government has given details of how a suspected bomber who detonated an explosive device near the state-owned Presidential Hotel during a pro-police protest in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.

A substance believed to be dynamite went off near the Presidential Hotel axis of the Aba expressway causing panic in the area.

Following the blast, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, had alerted the management of both public and private medical facilities in the state on the identity of the suspect, injury signs and the need to detain him if found.

The commissioner advised them to look out for “an individual, a young man with a traumatically dismembered upper limb because this injury which was sustained will require medical attention,” notify the Commissioner for Police, Rivers State and the Rivers State Ministry of Health if such an individual presents himself at their facility.

Oreh, in another briefing, said on Tuesday night, the yet-to-be-identified suspected bomber, was rushed to the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital for treatment by his friends who are now at large.

According to her, those who brought the man to the facility claimed that he was involved in a road accident but the medical personnel recognised that the injuries on the man were not in tandem with a road traffic accident, but rather resembled injuries that would have come from a blast.

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She said he was taken to the theatre for immediate resuscitation because as of the time he was brought in he was semi-conscious, following which they immediately informed the state government and the police.

The commissioner, further disclosed that the suspect is now stable after receiving medical attention at the facility, adding that, “we are working with the Rivers State Police Command and so the hospital has been fully secured.

“The patient is undergoing medical treatment. He is stable and the police are doing their own part in carrying out the necessary investigations. And so in this manner, we just seek to inform the public that this is the update following the earlier incident of today in Port Harcourt.”

The police are, however, yet to confirm the development.

However, on Tuesday night, the state Commissioner for Police, Olatunji Disu, while confirming the explosion said following preliminary investigations, the suspect actually detonated the explosive device but did not link the incident to the protesters who were in support of the barricade of the 23 local government council secretariats of the state earlier the same day.

“The information we gathered was that two of the occupants of the vehicle were injured, while two others came out, put them in the vehicle and drove off,” he stated.

How we arrested suspected bomber – Rivers govt