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How I Killed MEND's Soboma George - Niger Delta Avengers Commander a.k.a Urban Gorilla
Posted by Odinaka on Sat 22nd Apr, 2017 - tori.ngIt has been seven years since the murder of Soboma George, a Niger Delta militant and a popular figure within the MEND, after the arrest of some suspects, the police have again arrested a suspect who made startling revelations about the murder.
Urban Gorilla
The name, Soboma George, wouldn’t be forgotten in a hurry by many Nigerians, especially citizens of Rivers State. He was murdered in August 2010. He was a militant in both the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta and The Outlaws.
In August 2009, Soboma accepted an amnesty offer made by the Nigerian government, under President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua. Until his death, he led The Outlaws, a cult gang, and was a notorious commander of MEND.
In September 2010, two men, who were arrested in Ondo State for killing him, claimed they killed Soboma because he hired them to assassinate Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and the impeached deputy governor of Bayelsa State, Peremobowei Ebebi.
The suspects were Emmanuel Gladstone aka Tommy, Pere Fiofiri and Doubra Ogbe. Nobody knew they were acting out a script. The well-orchestrated script was written by a notorious Niger Delta Avenger Militant and kidnapper, Anthony Pepple 42, aka Urban Gorilla.
Nobody would have known the truth, if not that Operatives of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Ibrahim Idris’s, Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT), led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Mr. Abba Kyari, smashed Pepple’s gang.
How it all began...
Pepple claimed that he had got to a position at Saipem which offered him opportunity to travel widely for trainings before he decided to resign his job.
He said, “With all the experience and training, I left the company and decided to work with my uncle, Wilson Alison, who was the treasurer of the Ijaw National Congress at the time. My uncle needed someone he could trust.
“In 2010, my uncle wanted to divorce his wife because he discovered that she was too fetish. He told me that he learnt she slept with his friend in the US. He then filed for a divorce and that started a problem between them.
“I was told she paid N10m to Soboma to eliminate my uncle. Shortly after, my uncle was killed on Orazi Road around GRA Port Harcourt. Four men on two motorcycles killed him with AK47 rifles.
“I was not in town at the time but when I got back, I went to the police to take the corpse to the mortuary. After that, I embarked on my own investigation and learnt that he was killed by Soboma’s boys after my uncle’s wife paid N10m.
“I confronted her about it but she got angry and called me a cultist and militant. She reported me to the police and the military joint task force who started searching for me.”
Pepple said he also learnt that Soboma’s boys were looking for him and he decided to go underground, adding that few months after he went underground, two of his friends, whom he identified as Ayi and Blackee, did a job for a governor, who decided to pay them N60m.
But they said they did not want to keep the money in their accounts and were looking for an account where it could be paid without it being traced. He said the men mentioned Soboma’s name as one of their acquaintances, who had the personality to keep such money in his account.
Pepple said, “I told them that I did not trust Soboma because he was the one who killed my uncle. Because he was their friend, they did not heed my advice. The money was eventually paid into Soboma’s account.
“When it was time for them to collect their money, Soboma refused to give it to them. He ordered them out of his house. They came to me crying that he had betrayed them and asked what they could do. I told them I already had a score to settle with Soboma and suggested that we should kill him.”
Pepple said they contacted a spiritualist who made the militant weak and easy for them to trap and kill. According to him, the spiritualist did many rituals because Soboma was very powerful and he had some forces guarding him.
He explained that at the right time, the spiritualist gave them the go-ahead. Soboma was later gunned down along with his girlfriend on a Saturday after a football game he participated in.
Pepple said he was watching Soboma close to the football field and giving orders by phone to Ayi and Blackee on the right time to move in on the victim.
“Ayi was the first person who came out with a gun and when Soboma saw him he wanted to run and they opened fire on him and killed him on the spot with his girlfriend. The four men guarding him fled when the shooting started. I took a motorcycle and left the scene. Ayi and Blackee did not put on masks so, everybody saw their faces.
“I had told them that if they were arrested over the death of Soboma, they should tell the police that Soboma paid them N60m to kill Governor Rotimi Amaechi, then maybe they might be released because of that. Shortly after that, my uncle’s wife died.”
After the killing, Ayi and Blackee were reportedly arrested in Ondo State. But Pepple said he fled Nigeria and got a job offer with an oil company in Abu Dhabi.
He said he returned to Nigeria in December 2014 with the money he had saved and I intended to go into oil bunkering.
Pepple, speaking in IRT’s custody recently, gave a graphic account of how he planned the murder of Soboma and brought the name of Amaechi into the whole matter.
He said: “Blackee and others were arrested and brought to Port Harcourt. Before their arrest, I had told them that whenever they were arrested over the death of Soboma, they should tell the police that Soboma paid them N60million to kill Governor Rotimi Amaechi.
"When they said that, the governor became interested and told the police not to touch them.”
Pepple was arrested along with other members of his kidnap gang. Some of the suspects are Hillary Wogu 41, Ogbungbada Chima 36, Chief Aghara Emmanuel Lobito 31, Lucky Gospel Marako 36, Igbiki Sokari, 38, Dokubo Victor Ipalibo 28, Okwudili Pascal 41 and Candy Ndubisi Nwankwo 30.
Exhibits recovered from the syndicate are an AK47 rifle with bridge No. 4398, three vehicles, two SUV’s and Volkswagen Golf, used for kidnapping operations.
The police said the gang specialised in targeting medical doctors and pharmacists working in Port Harcourt. After several reported cases of kidnapping by the gang, Idris instructed the IRT operatives, to go after the gang.
A police source said: “On April 1, around 3pm, after painstaking Intelligence gathering and analysis, IRT operatives, who were deployed to Port-Harcourt, arrested Saheed Adekunle 27, aka ‘Black Devil.’
"Adekunle, who resides in Port-Harcourt confessed to have been introduced to kidnapping by Pepple in 2016. Swiftly acting on Adekunle’s confession, operatives arrested Pepple.
Pepple, clearly well educated, is a former staff of a Multinational Oil Servicing Company in Nigeria and Abu Dhabi, UAE, (SAIPEM).” After his arrest, Pepple confessed to be a key member of the Niger Delta Avengers. He said that his gang masterminded the killing of Soboma.
He also confessed to being the kingpin of a kidnap syndicate that was known for targeting medical doctors and pharmacists, amongst others. The gang had been kidnapping and collecting ransom since 2015.
After Pepple’s confession, the operatives embarked on a mop up operation, which lasted for about 72 hours. During the raid, seven other members of the gang were arrested.
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