By Mandy Tina
Concerned residents of Rivers State have raised eyebrow over Police silence on arresting prime suspects in the gruesome murder of SP Bako Angbashim.
February 8, 2024 made it five months after suspected Iceland cult members, led by one David Gift aka 2Baba, operating in Ahoada East Local Government Area of the state were fingered by the Rivers State Police Command over the beheading of Superintendent of Police (SP) Bako Angbashim.
Angbashim, then Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ahoada Police Division, was killed on September 8, 2023 at Odemude community.
Speaking with our correspondent, a resident of the state, Woke Chimele, questioned the silence by the Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, and Rivers State Commissioner of Police, CP Olatunji Disu, over the whereabouts of the prime suspects, David Gift aka 2Baba, and his five major lieutenants, wondering why the suspects have not been arrested.
According to Chimele, it is disturbing and displeasing that five months after the incident, the prime suspects seem to be invincible.
Another concerned resident, Pere Malafakumo, said the inability of the Police to capture 2Baba five months after the incident is discouraging and worrisome.
He said further that Police attitude towards the murder case has left many people pondering if the prime suspect will ever be apprehended.
Some months ago the Commissioner of Police Rivers State, CP Olatunji Disu, had told newsmen when he visited Ahoada East on November 15, 2023, the day he resumed duty, that one of the mandates given to him by the Inspector General of Police (IGP) was to apprehend killers of SP Angbashim.
CP Disu went further to task officers of the command to get him 2Baba and other suspects involved in the killing of the DPO.
The CP-led Rivers State Police Command fight against cultism received major boost in the month of January 2024 when two cult leaders on the watch-list of the Police, John Togo, said to be Anchor head of Iceland cult groups, and Samuel Odereke, said to be leader of Greenland cult groups in Ahoada West Local Government Area, were “neutralized.”
Rivers citizens are not yet convinced on the preparedness of the command to arrest 2Baba in the shortest of time.
It would interest you to know that Iceland cult members in Ahoada East minutes after killing and beheading SP Angbashim displayed his dismemebered body in a video and posted it on the internet.
The cultists were heard taunting the late DPO that “you dey challenge Iceland”. The group had also claimed responsibility for the killing.
Although three months after the incident, the prime suspect 2Baba, through a call-in radio programme, denied being responsible for the killing of the late DPO.
2Baba had claimed that there are many cult groups and armed men in the local government area, adding that the DPO must have been killed by one of the armed group, but not him (2Baba).
Governor of Rivers State, Sir Siminalayi Fubara had on September 9, 2023, placed one hundred million naira bounty on the prime suspects and others. The governor also suspended a first class traditional ruler in the local governmemt area, accusing him of complicity.
