Police in Port Harcourt has refuted newspaper reports that its headquarters at Moscow road was razed in the attack by militants where over 125 detainees were freed, insisting that none of its stations was burnt.
In a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Ireju Barasua, neither the Central Police Station nor the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) was torched, though they were attacked.
Coming out for the first time with the police detailed version of the incident, Barasua said the said Soboma George, who police had declared wanted in 2005 after he allegedly escaped from Port Harcourt Prisons was involved in a traffic offence when he was arrested.
“The correct version is that on Sunday, January 28, 2007, at about 1.45p.m., the police Anti-Crime Patrol team on stop and search intercepted two persons in a Toyota Jeep with tinted glass for obstructing traffic along Aggrey Road, Port Harcourt.
“Consequently, the arrested persons were detained at the Central Police Station (CPS), Port Harcourt, one with the name Harryman Okoma as against Mrs. K.N. Wokoma whose name reflected on the particulars of the vehicle in his possession. The said Harryman Okoma was later found to be Soboma George “m”, the most wanted escapee from the last Port Harcourt Prisons jail-break in 2005.
“Based on the detention of the said Soboma George, armed attackers/militants numbering about three hundred (300) invaded the Port Harcourt metropolis through the Bundu waterfront and started shooting sporadically along Aggrey/Hospital Road with sophisticated weapons including dynamites, making people to scamper for safety.
“The militants were confronted by a combined team of Joint Task Force (JTF). Consequently, the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) and Central Police Station were broken into and 105 and 21 suspects were freed from the cells.
“While the militants were withdrawing after the attack, they detonated dynamites which destroyed seven patrol vehicles, and one truck and a car belonging to an unknown member of the public,” she said.
She, therefore, warned newsmen to avoid sensational reports which could cause panic and assured members of the public of police resolve to always do all within their constitutional duties to protect lives and properties.
She, was however, silent on the number of casualties which newspapers conservatively put at five.