The Police in Rivers State have confirmed the arrest of the prime suspects who masterminded the bomb explosion near the Hotel Presidential adjacent to Aba Road in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on June 25, 2024.
The Rivers State Police Command says it has identified the prime suspect who detonated a dynamite near the Hotel Presidential adjacent to Aba Road in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on June 25, 2024.
In a statement released on Sunday by Grace Iringe-Koko, the Police Public Relations Officer named the suspect Preye Josiah, 49 years of age, from the Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa. The PPRO noted that the suspect will be sent to court to face different charges relating to the crime committed.
She confirmed that the suspect in the past has been declared wanted by the police concerning different bank robbery activities in Bayelsa state. The PPRO also alleged that the suspect had been discovered to be a member of the dangerous cult group Vikings.
During the detonation of the explosive, the suspected sustained several injuries including the chopping off of his hand, the criminal act was carried out in the state during the protest which called for the occupation of the premises of the 23 local governments areas in the state.
The police stated that the suspect had received good medical attention and had three major operations conducted to ensure his safety before going to court.
The police confirmed that the suspect had committed different crimes in the state, alongside one, Daniel Gogo, alias Full Payment, between 2012 and 2016. It was alleged by the police that Gogo led the crimes. In the past, the police had recovered arms and ammunition from the suspect; the arms were listed as three AK-47 rifles, a Lar rifle, 360 rounds of live ammunition, 20 magazines, five dynamites, and two pistols.
The police commissioner in the state, Olatunji Disu, advised the residents of the state to be proactive when any incident of an explosion is heard in their environment. He explained that in the past, multiple explosives are planted in a same vicinity, resulting in multiple blasts. The commissioner charged residents with alerting the police in the case of any explosion in their environment.
The protest, which called for the occupation of the local government secretariats, occurred after the Martin Amaewhule-led State House of Assembly amended the State LG law, which extended the tenure of the LG elections by six months due to Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s alleged failure to conduct them in the state.
Meanwhile, the PPRO stated that the police in the state have started an investigation into the explosion that rocked the Secretariat of the Action Peoples Party in the new GRA axis of Port Harcourt on August 12, 2024
