The Rivers State Government announced it has arrested the suspect who detonated an explosive device near the state-owned Presidential Hotel during a pro-police protest in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
This development comes less than 24 hours after the State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Adaeze Oreh, alerted management of both public and private medical facilities in the state to the identity of the suspect, injury signs, and the need to detain him if found.
Panic ensued when a material thought to be dynamite exploded close to the Presidential Hotel on the Aba motorway.
While speaking to newsmen on Tuesday evening, Oreh said, “Now the Rivers State Ministry of Health is calling for an alert to all medical facilities in the state, both public and privately owned facilities, to be vigilant and look out for an individual, a young man with a traumatically dismembered upper limb, because this injury that was sustained will require medical attention.
“If such an individual and their accomplices are present in any of the facilities, immediately notify the Commissioner for Police, Rivers State, and the Rivers State Ministry of Health.”
However, Oreh later on Tuesday night told reporters that his companions, who are currently at large, had hurried the unidentified suspected bomber to the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital for treatment.
She clarified that those who transported the man to the hospital said he had been in a car accident on the way to the hospital.
The commissioner stated, “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 an 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 I immediately recognised that the injuries seen in this individual were not in tandem with a road traffic accident but rather resembled 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. I 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.”
But after receiving treatment at the facility, the commissioner revealed that the suspect is now stable. “We are working with the Rivers State Police Command, so the hospital has been fully secured; the premises and the perimeter have been fully secured,” the commissioner said.
“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.”
