Rivers govt speaks on whereabouts of victim of Tuesday’s explosion

The victim of Tuesday’s suspected dynamite explosion in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital, is stable and undergoing treatment at a hospital in the state.

The State Commissioner for Health, Adaeze Oreh, disclosed this in a video posted on X.

Mrs Oreh’s comment is contrary to a report by Channels Television that the explosion which occurred along Aba- Port Harcourt Road around Hotel Presidential killed one person.

The Commissioner of Police in Rivers State, who appeared as a guest on Channels TV programme Politics Today on Tuesday, had said the police were investigating the incident.

According to Channels TV, the victim may have inadvertently triggered the explosion.

The television station reported how a witness said the impact of the explosion “ripped open the chest of the victim.”

However, an X user with the handle @Topboychris said the suspect (victim) who “accidentally detonated a dynamite near the Hotel Presidential during a protest has been apprehended” and was recovering in an Intensive Care Unit in a hospital.

“The individual (victim), part of a group of protesters allegedly hired by former local government chairpersons and cronies of the FCT minister, was found and arrested at the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital,” he said in a post.

He also posted a video of the Rivers State Government clarifying issues about the arrest.

Victim stable, under treatment – Rivers Govt

Contrary to media reports that the victim died, the Rivers State Government said he was stable and receiving treatment.

Speaking in the X video, Mrs Oreh said her ministry had alerted medical facilities in the state to be on alert about a failed attempt to detonate an explosive around the Hotel Presidential in the state.

“The reason for that was for them to be vigilant and alert and a high index of suspicion should any individual present himself at any of the medical facilities with an injury suggestive of a traumatic amputation of an upper limb.

“And so following that call, medical facilities in the state were on a heightened sense of alert. When a young man was brought to the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital with alleged injuries sustained during what was said to be a road traffic accident, the medical personnel that treated him immediately recognised that the injuries were not in tandem with a road traffic accident and rather resembled injuries that should have come from a blast.”

The patient, the commissioner said, was taken to the theatre for immediate resuscitation because he was semi-conscious when he was brought, after which the hospital informed the state government and the commissioner of police.

“He is currently stable. We are working in tandem with the police. The hospital is fully secured. The patient is undergoing medical treatment.”

She further said that only one of the people who brought the victim to the hospital was still with him as he underwent treatment.

The commissioner, however, did not mention the protest or solidarity match that took place around the scene of the explosion.

Backstory

The political crisis rocking the oil-rich Rivers State turned violent last week, resulting in the death of two persons, including a police officer.

To prevent further breakdown of law and order, the inspector general of police on Wednesday ordered operatives to take over the 23 local government secretariats in the state pending when the Court of Appeal delivers judgment in the appeal filed by the pro-Wike lawmakers over an order of a lower which restrained them from parading themselves as members of Rivers House of Assembly.

On Monday, 21 of the 23 out-gone elected local chairpersons in Rivers, who refused to vacate office after the expiration of their three-year tenure, led protests across the state after the police advised the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees to suspend its planned protest that was scheduled last Monday.

The former council officials, who are loyal to Mr Wike, are backing the continuous closure of the council secretariats in the state to prevent the caretaker committees recently inaugurated by Governor Siminalayi Fubara from having access to the facilities.

The protest began on Monday and continued on Tuesday, with supporters of Mr Wike taking to the streets, chanting songs in solidarity with the minister, who is at loggerheads with Mr Fubara over the control of political structures in the state.

The protesters, according to Channels TV, were marching within 500 meters of Hotel Presidential, where the explosion occurred. The television station could not, however, confirm if the victim was one of the protesters.