Men of the Rivers State police command have cordoned off the premises of Braithwaite Memorial Specialist Hospital (BMH), Port Harcourt where the victims of Thursday’s commercial bus explosion at Rumuokoro roundabout, Port Harcourt, were being treated.
A senior police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity told LEADERSHIP WEEKEND that the move was to prevent the victims, suspected to be armed robbers from escaping immediately they regain consciousness.
He stated that the victims would be apprehended immediately they are discharged from the hospital for possible interrogation on what they were doing with the assault rifles found in the ill-fated vehicle.
Rivers State governor, Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi had, while speaking at the scene of the explosion, stated that the four AK-47 rifles were recovered from the vehicle by the police, insisting that the explosion might have been caused by dynamites that were loaded in the commercial bus.
Amaechi said; “There were three men; we don’t know where they were going to. They were in a vehicle; they had explosives believed to be dynamites. No building was affected. The commissioner of police even confirmed that a lady selling by the roadside was not affected. There is no damage on the road to show that it was a bomb blast.
“From time to time, when armed robbers want to rob, they carry dynamites because of bullet- proof doors in banks. You can see that it was not a bomb but a dynamite.”