Wanted cult leader, Gift Okpara (2Baba), the alleged mastermind in the gruesome murder of the Divisional Police Officer of Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers, Bako Angbashin, has dismissed the allegation leveled against him.
The notorious cultists, who has a N101 million bounty on him after Angbasin’s killing, spoke in a voice note from hiding, noted that he knows nothing about the officer’s death.
He, however, said that he spoke with the late DPO before he was killed because the deceased was posted to his community, and that he was surprised to hear that the DPO had been killed that very day.
Okpara claimed he was into dredging, and at no time involve in kidnap operations for ransom, as well as illegal bunkering and related acts of criminality, noting that he was into the dredging business and not sponsored by a traditional ruler as claimed.
The Iceland cult leader described himself as a freedom fighter of the Ekpeye ethnic nationality, whose gang picked up arms after they were granted amnesty by the former administration because a rival gang killed his members, including his younger brother.
He claimed that despite the fact that the said rival gang failed to submit its arms, the government didn’t sanction it’s members.
He said: “I want to tell the Rivers State Government that I am not involved in anything concerning the death of DPO. I didn’t want to say anything all this while. But I decided to speak out because of the way people were talking about it.
“I was surprised and I want to tell people that I was not after the DPO and I’m not involved in his death. It is just that the incident happened on my community road. And the day it (killing) occurred I spoke with him. I and the DPO discussed this.
“I was not even there when he was killed that day and I was shocked when I heard about the incident.”
He added: “We submitted all the arms and ammunition we have, but our opposition refused to submit. And I saw that the government didn’t do anything about it. So my gang started regretting our decision to submit our arms.
“So since we no longer have weapons, our rivals now used the advantage to trail us and kill members of my gang. They killed my younger brother of the same parents and burnt our house. That was my annoyance and that was why I went back to gunplay (crime),” he said.
According to Okpara, “I didn’t pick up arms again for the purpose of intimidating people and causing problems. Everybody knows I was not into kidnapping, illegal bunkering, or any criminal activity.
“I have just been concentrating on my business. And everybody knows that the only business I was doing was dredging. That is what I do.”
