The Rivers State announced on Wednesday that the suspect who detonated an explosive device near the state-owned Presidential Hotel on Aba Road during a protest in Port Harcourt yesterday had been arrested.
The arrest came about 24 hours after the state commissioner for health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, alerted the managements of both public and private medical facilities in the state to be on the look-out for patient(s) with suspected injuries arising from blasts.
The victim, whose identity is yet to be disclosed was said to have been among the protesters mobilised by top political leaders from the different wards of Obio/Akpor to show their solidarity for the minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and immediate past governor of the state, Mr Nyesom Wike.
Oreh said that the severely injured patient was brought into the facility by some persons, who claimed that he was taken from a road traffic accident scene, adding that on close observation, it was discovered that the injuries were not related to any road traffic accident.
“A call was put out by the State Government on Tuesday, 25th June, 2024, alerting all owners of the medical facilities, both public and private in the State, about a failed attempt to detonate an explosive at the axis of Hotel Presidential.
“The reason for that was for them to be vigilant, with heightened sense of alert and high index of suspicion, should any individual present himself at any of the medical facilities with injury suggestive of a traumatic amputation of an upper limp.
“Following from 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 (RSUTH) with alleged injury sustained during what was said to be a road accident, the medical personnel that were on hand to examine him and offer medical care were on alert, and immediately recognised that the injuries that were seen on the individual were not in tandem with a road traffic accident, and rather resembled injury that would have come from a blast,” she said.
Oreh revealed that the management of RSUTH and the state government were working in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force that had been duly notified and already playing its role in investigating the incident and the suspect.
“The individual was taken to the theater for immediate resuscitation because as at the time he was brought in, he was semi-conscious but the medical personnel did the needful and immediately informed the Rivers State Government.
“Immediately too, they informed the Commissioner of Police in Rivers State 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.
“He is currently stable. We are working in tandem with the Rivers State Police Command, and the hospital has been fully secured; fences and perimeters have been fully secured.
“The patient is undergoing current medical treatment. He is stable and the police is doing their own part by carrying out the necessary investigation,” she added.
Late on Tuesday, the state commissioner for police, Mr Olatunju Disu, had confirmed the explosion.
The commissioner did not attribute the act to the protesters who were in support of the barricade of the 23 local government council secretariats of the state earlier the same day.
However, he said the police had begun an investigation into the incident.
“We got that information that four persons in a white Corolla vehicle somewhere along Aba Road stopped their vehicle and there was an explosion.
“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.
“We have triggered all the necessary units of the Nigerian Police Force within the state to be on the lookout for these people and the victims in case they are going for treatment anywhere.
“At the same time, we have brought in officers in charge of the bomb squad. They have been able to gather particles to confirm that some particles that indicate IED (improvised explosive device) were discovered,” he said.
