From Tony John, Port Harcourt
The Rivers State Police Command said it was still on the trail of David Gift (aka 2Baba), prime suspect in the killing of SP Bako Angbashim, late Divisional Police Officer(DPO) of Ahoada Police Division.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) incharge of Operations, Olubenga Adepoju, made the disclosure while handing over four 20Kv generators the police recovered from 2Baba’s hideout which he seized from a company for not paying him N20 million ‘matching ground’ fee, an illegal levy imposed on persons or organizations by cultists.
Adepoju said: “I am here representing Commissioner of Police, CP Olatunji Disu, today, to handover some Perkins generator, four that were recovered by our tactical teams seized by the notorious most wanted criminal in Rivers command, David Gift, aka 2Baba and his gang, who killed SP Bako Angbashim, DPO of Ahoada Police Division some months back.
“These generators were intercepted by him some months ago,while going to a location to be used by the company at Odiemude community in Ahoada East Local Government Area.
“He (2Baba) seized it and was demanding N20 million for the generators, N5 million for each generator before it can be released to the company.
“While we were searching for him, we were able to storm on the generator where he kept them. Our men tactically cordoned off the place and recovered the generators.
“We have the generators here with us. Today, we want to present it to the company. I don’t want to mention the name of the company for security reasons. They are here with us now. This is one of our achievements. We are still on his trail and by the grace of God, we will get him.
“Criminals should know that Rivers State is not a place for them to stay. They should advise themselves; if not, we give them the chase they deserve.
“We are warning every other person who wants to bring criminality back to the system, while urging anyone whose property these people are still with to report officially to the command, so we do the needful.”
Meanwhile, one of the representatives of the company in an interview with journalists thanked the Police for their efforts in recovering the generators.
He said: “I want to seize this opportunity to thank the Rivers State Police Command for this feat. These generators were confiscated some months ago and all efforts to recover them failed and we reported them to the Police.
“They did a very fantastic job even sacrificing their own men to recover our assets and also handing it over to us peacefully without any string attached. This is something that is commendable. I have known the CP for a long time; he is a good Police officer with a lot of respect accorded to him.