Posted by By CHRIS AGUNWEZE on
Throughout the whole of last week, the report all over the country was that Soboma George, leader of one of the cult groups said to be behind the current mayhem in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, had been killed in an early morning shootout with military on Thursday.
Throughout the whole of last week, the report all over the country was that Soboma George, leader of one of the cult groups said to be behind the current mayhem in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, had been killed in an early morning shootout with military on Thursday.
Although, the report was that the fateful event took place at about 4:30 am that Thursday, Soboma had spoken to Saturday Sun at about 9:00 am. But that was before the news of his alleged death was made public. But the cult leader in another brief chat this Thursday, told Saturday Sun that the story of his escape from the battle, that was said to have claimed the lives of several of his men was nothing short of a miracle.
In his words:
I was actually in the room when they came... First, what we heard was gunshot, a lot of gunshots. There were two different buildings under one roof. The first room is where you have the reception and the general parlour where people drink. The second one is where they lodge guests, where the rooms were and, then there was an open space where they play live band.
When they came there, they were like shooting seriously. When I heard the gunshots, I became alert. I was so surprised to hear the gunshot because nobody expected a gunshot around that area. When I woke up and asked them what was going on, the whole exit points of the building were locked and there was nothing I could do. When the soldiers came in, they started pounding on the doors and breaking them down.
Any room they entered, they would just open fire in the room. When I had these I jumped into the ceiling of my room and they started spraying bullets on the ceilings. I started creeping in the ceiling, I saw a block at the extreme end of the ceiling and I hid myself behind the block from there.
I left the ceiling of my room and I saw another block where I still hid myself. I was there seeing bullets piecing my room's ceiling. I waited for a while even as the bullets were flying around. I saw a small hole at the extreme end of the building and I jumped down from that hole into the swamp behind the guest house. So all of them thought I was supposed to be dead after the attack. They didn't use bomb to bring the building down, but they used a rocket launcher.
How many of my men died? None of my men died. I want to tell you the truth that none of my men died. But there were other lodgers in the hotel and they all died. Another person that died was the owner of the guest house. The man they call Iyalla and his manager and another girl brought by one of the lodgers. It was Iyalla's manager that they thought was me. I did not receive any tip off. I did not know that they were coming.
Actually I was not hiding. What happened is that at Marine Base we got a little information that soldiers were coming for searching at Marine Base, so I had to leave the place with my boys. So I went to that hotel room to relax for a while so that after their search, I will come back.
Yes I believe that there may be some people giving them all this information but it may also be that I was really not hiding. I do drive round town. The second time I was arrested after the jail break was when I was returning from church, I was actually embarrassed at Bonny Street. I was driving a BMW. I should think that they actually know me and they just wanted to try. They asked for my paper I showed it to them and everything was complete but they asked me to follow them and I followed them. They took me to Central Police Station (CPS) They asked me to pay N50,000. But before they knew it, my boys came to rescue me.