FOLLOWING the explosion of a car at the 2nd Amphibious Brigade headquarters in Port Harcourt last Wednesday, the heads of the Army, Airforce, Navy and the Police in Rivers State met at the weekend to review security situation in the state.
The closed door meeting, which held at the Brigade headquarters on Aba Road, Port Harcourt, was attended by the Brigade Commander, the Commissioner of Police and the Director of the Security Services (SSS) in the state. The meeting lasted several hours.
Sources disclosed that the heads of the various security agencies resolved that there was the need to overhaul security strategy in the state considering the recent happenings in the Niger Delta.
Last Wednesday, a Mercedes Benz 200 car exploded at the 2nd Amphibious Brigade headquarters, killing two persons and critically injuring six others. Since then, stringent security measures have been put in place with human and vehicular movements being subjected to thorough scrutiny.
The security measures apparently resulted from the claims by two militants, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and Coalition of Military Action in the Niger Delta (COMA) that they were responsible for the car explosion.
Though it is still awaiting the report of the Police anti-bomb unit that is investigating the precise cause of the explosion, the Army has reiterated that militants did not perpetrate the blast.
Army spokesman, Major Sagir Musa, who debunked the militants’ claim, told The Guardian that following the explosion at the precincts of the barracks, the Army would no longer allow unhindered access to and fro the barracks. The two gates within the barracks had been used by motorists as shortcuts between the busy Aba and Ikwerre roads’ section of Rumuokoro.
“Because of this unpleasant episode (car explosion), we are reviewing the situation. The gates, which are locked now, will be open when the police finish the investigation. It is only then that we will know if the explosion was caused by a bomb, dynamite or whatever,” he said.
The army spokesman explained that there was no arrest yet since the police have not come out with their findings on the matter. He disclosed that professional military police and members of the military intelligence are actively involved in the investigation aimed at unravelling the cause of the car blast.
While stating that the Army had not been able to interrogate the six survivors of the explosion due to the critical injury they sustained; Musa denied that the survivors had been relocated from the Military Hospital on Aba Road, Port Harcourt.
Apr232006