By Samuel Oyadongha

Yenagoa —The Bayelsa State Police Command has confirmed that last Thursday killing of the leader of a notorious cult group, the Bobos, Wanemi Omubo, was carried out by some members of the group in desperate bid to change its leadership.

The deceased, an indigene of Nembe in Nembe Local Government Area of the state, was also a beneficiary of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, and a leader of the Phase 2 Amnesty beneficiaries in the state.

He was shot dead along Goodnews Street at the Azikoro suburb of Yenagoa, the state capital.
While some residents blamed his death on the raging cult rivalry between the Bobos and the Vikings, others believed the killing may have been carried out by mercenaries brought to eliminate him in retaliation.

But the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Francis Izu, at a media briefing, said the killing of Wanemi was carried out by members of the Bobos group in an intra cult war with the aim of profiting from a new leadership.

Izu, while assuring the residents of the state of the end of the cult killings in the state, said despite the fact that late Wanemi was a notorious cultist that had the records of crimes, he was killed by his gang members.

He said: “No fewer than 95 percent of intelligence available to the police showed that he died due to intra cult rivalry about leadership struggle. They took him out and made it look like inter cult rivalry in order to profit from his death.

“It is on good authority that the deceased has been involved in nefarious activity. The last altercation with the police was over the issue of illegal gun possession. He was controversially influenced to be let off the hook and that is why I have always said when you influence the release of a criminal off the hook, you are building a disastrous effect.”

The Police Commissioner also announced the arrest of over nine persons for various crimes including cultism, kidnapping, armed robbery, unlawful possession of firearms and murder.

In one of the cases, a 50-year-old native of Gombe State, Mohammed Adamu, was arrested alongside Adiamakubo Orubo, 37 years, over the alleged disappearance of one Ashiru Ishiaku, 26, a native of Kano State along with his tricycle on April 29, 2025.

Also arrested was a member of the notorious Island cult group, David Ngo, 36-year-old, native of Brass Local Government Area over the alleged stabbing to death of one Goodwill Ovuru at Agudama Ekpetiama on April 16, 2025.