How Suspect Behind Port Harcourt Explosion Was Arrested

By Charles Igbo

Thanks to the instruction given by the Rivers State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Adaeze Oreh, the suspect behind the detonation of an explosive in front of Hotel Presidential, Port Harcourt on Tuesday, has been arrested.

The suspect whose name remain undisclosed, allegedly, detonated an explosive which hurt him badly, and killed one person during a pro-Police march in Porthacourt by supporters of the Minister for the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike.

Their protest was in support of the continued Police occupation of Local Government Secretariats after the expiration of the tenure of the Chairmen and Councillors,  and the constitution of Interim Chairman and members by Governor Siminalayi Fubara who is at loggerheads with Wike, his estranged political  godfather.

The occupation by the Police of the LGA Headquarters, roundly condemned by not a few people and groups, has made it impossible for those appointed by the Governor to operate from their offices.

The arrest of the suspect at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital was announced Tuesday night by Dr. Oreh who had, immediately, after the incident, alerted all Public and Private owned Hospitals to be on the look out for anybody who would come to seek treatment for wounds in the upper part of the body.

Oreh disclosed that those who took the suspect to the Hospital lied that he was a victim of a traffic accident. They left him and disappeared. But the medical team who took him in immediately to save his life, first, knew that the wounds were from an explosive and had nothing to do with a traffic accident.

After stabilising him, because he was semi-conscious on arrival, as instructed by Oreh, the hospital alerted the Police and the Ministry of Health and the State Government based on Oreh’s alert that they  look out for “a young man with a traumatically dismembered upper limb”.

Announcing the arrest of the suspect Tuesday night, Commissioner Oreh said:

“Following that call, our medical facilities in the state were on a heightened sense of alert and so when a young man was brought to the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital with alleged injury sustained during what was said to be a road traffic accident the medical personnel that were on hand to examine him and offer care were on alert, and immediately recognised that the injuries seen on this individual were not in tandem with a road traffic accident, but rather resemble injuries that would have come from a blast.

“The individual was taken to the theatre for immediate resuscitation because as of the time he was brought in he was semi-conscious.

“The medical personnel did the needful and immediately informed the Rivers State Government. Immediately informed the Commissioner for Police and the Rivers State Ministry of Health about the presence of that individual in the facility even when providing emergency medical care to revive and resuscitate him.

“We are working with the Rivers State Police Command and so the Hospital has been fully secured, the premises and the perimeter have 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.”

A confirmation by the Police   is awaited.