Abagworo:

Three men wielding AK-47 assault rifles gunned down a former Niger Delta militant, Soboma George, in Port Harcourt today.

idupaul:

Is this the same Soboma that jtf failed to kill in the famous kill no capture attacks in ph.

Okija_juju:

I need proof jor!!

@ Op

pls give us source.

idupaul:

Is this the same Soboma that jtf failed to kill in the famous kill no capture attacks in ph. Men how come jst 3 men were able to hit him in his green zone . Was his crew nt armed even with a single Assault rifle . How did the killers have enuff time to carry his body . This story is blur

Okija_juju:

Na wah o!! Well its all good!!

Whos next?!

Abagworo:

Visiting friends at Borokiri or town is now risky.

Police confirm Soboma George’s death
Cover Stories Aug 25, 2010
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PORT HARCOURT: RIVERS state Police Command has confirmed the brutal murder of a former leader of the Movement for the Emancipation of Niger Delta (MEND) and repentant militant leader, Soboma George. According to the Commissioner of Police, Mr Suleiman Abba, one of the heads of the late Soboma’s family, Chief Ibiere George was in his office yesterday to say that the family feared the late militant leader was assassinated on Tuesday evening along Nembe Street.

Meanwhile, the Commissioner said at press time the whereabouts of his corpse was still unknown to the police. The Police boss said his men responded to distress call that there was shooting around Nembe street in Borikiri part of Port Harcourt at about 19hrs (7pm) on Tuesday and on getting there his men found two girls with bullet injuries. One was confirmed dead when rushed to the hospital while the other he said was still responding to treatment at the time of this piece.

Soboma George.

Continuing, he said eye witnesses told the police men that raced to the scene that a man suspected to be Soboma George was among those that suffered the bullet attack. Adding that effort to trace his corpse if he was dead was futile. Nevertheless, he said in the morning of yesterday a Chief who identified himself as a relative of the ex militant leader came to the Police headquarters to express very strong fears that their brother died in that attack.

The Police boss said no arrest had been made in connection with the incident. But that some persons close to Soboma were assisting the Police with useful information.

He urged residents of the state to go about their normal business as adequate security arrangements had been put in place to guarantee law and order in the state. At the time of this report surveillance helicopters were seen hovering round the Port Harcourt airspace, apparently to nip any uprising in the board.

When Vanguard visited the Nembe Street where Soboma was reportedly fell by bullets from his assailants’, security was heavy in the area. Some persons who volunteered comments to the Vanguard said the ex militant leader was killed in the attack.

They said he was decked in a green and white tracksuit when the assailants opened fire on him. According to one of them, Soboma earlier complained in the day that he did not understand how he was feeling. The source continued that the assailants tailed him from a football field in the neighbourhood where he was coming from. He was reportedly buying boiled groundnut from a hawker on the Nembe Street when his assailants opened fire on him. The groundnut was apparently his last meal because he allegedly threw some of the nuts in before the volleys of shot started coming.

The first shot from the assailants according to the street sources hit one of the ground nut sellers who gave up the ghost immediately. Subsequent shots brought him down. One of the shots also hit the other girly assisting her sister to sell groundnut. And she was rushed to a trauma centre in the state capital.

When Vanguard met her at the hospital she gave her name as Princess John. She said she was in the field where Soboma was coming from. According to her, after the football match, he called her to bring groundnut, so she and her sister ran to him. And while they were selling the assailants started shooting. She gave the name of her late sister as Joy. She said their father had been bedridden from an accident since 1992. And they had been fending for the family through the sale of groundnut.

Meanwhile, one of the shots according to eye witnesses got Soboma on his fore head, causing him to slump. They said the assailants got closer to him after he slumped to pump more shots into him. And when they were sure he was dead they drove off leaving him in the pool of his own blood. It was not clear if there was any resistance from his angle but some of his boys around allegedly disappeared with his corpse, first to Nembe waterside and later they made a u turn to Marine base, an area in Port Harcourt that he exercised so much control on.

Soboma George was the second in Command to Ateke Tom before they fell out and he went to float Outlaws, a group that grew to a terror height in the state. He was arrested, tried for sundry charges and kept at the Port Harcourt prisons in 2004. He broke jail at the Port Harcourt prisons the following year. After his escape he went underground for some time. In 2007 he was arrested for traffic offence on Hospital road while on his way back from church. Unknown to the Police at the Central Police station, Town, as he was being quizzed hundreds of his boys who got wind of the arrest mobilised to the streets, shooting sporadically. They marched towards the Police station where they rescued him and flung the doors of the cells open for other inmates to flee.

In 2008, soldiers from the Port Harcourt army barracks stormed his Marine base hide out to arrest him but narrowly missed him, a situation that caused many to describe him as a cat with nine lives. The soldiers attacked his Marine base hide out in Port Harcourt with gun boats, armoured personnel carriers and helicopters for aerial surveillance, but they still missed him.

Precisely on August 7th, 2009 he led about twenty of his boys to key into the federal government amnesty programme at a discreet ceremony at the state office of the State security Service in Port Harcourt. Mr Timi Alaibe who was then Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta, National Coordinator of the amnesty programme then, Air Vice Marshal Lucky Ararile were among top security personnel at the SSS venue of the event. Soboma who vowed to quit militancy on that day surrendered forty riffles and four General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMG). It would also be recalled that at the event he pleaded with the Rivers state government to beat a retreat on its planned demolition of waterfronts, saying it was likely going to trigger off another round of violence in the state.

Those close to him said he attended Stella Maris College, Town but they were not sure if he completed his secondary education there. They said he was in his early thirties.

He was reportedly buying boiled groundnut from a hawker on the Nembe Street when his assailants opened fire on him. [b]The groundnut was apparently his last meal because he allegedly threw some of the nuts in before the volleys of shot started coming.[/b]The first shot from the assailants according to the street sources hit one of the ground nut sellers who gave up the ghost immediately. Subsequent shots brought him down. One of the shots also hit the other girly assisting her sister to sell groundnut. And she was rushed to a trauma centre in the state capital.