BAKER IS TRULY DEAD

UPDATE January 03, 2021

TOMMY Maeva Baker's life of crime came to a dramatic bloody end on the last day of 2021.

Baker and his crew were exiting Viole Culvert near Kaini village outside Alotau town, in Papua New Guinea's eastern seaport town of Alotau when police, acting on a tip-off, trapped the gang.

Police Commissioner David Manning confirmed the killing of Baker in the ensuing shootout, ending his eight year reign of terror in PNG.

It was a cool New Year's Eve. Papua New Guineans all over the country were looking forward to welcoming 2022.

Baker, said to have suffered some injury during various gun battles earlier in the year with police, had been spotted lurking in the vicinity of Alotau, in the hope of accessing medical treatment.

Police intel was working overtime, accessing info and assessing the veracity of the intelligence, and tracking the movement of Baker.

The cops were joining the dots. As the clock ticked down to New Year, the dots were getting narrower.

Baker was in Kwaini. But being a hardened wanted criminal, he knew he had to be always on the move. In this day and age of mobile phone and internet technology, life and death hangs by a bare thread, by mili seconds.

For Baker, time simply rang out when the long arm of the law cut off his escape at Viole Culvert.

At 35, Baker held a considerable influence over Milne Bay due to his indiscriminate criminal activities. His mother is from Raba Raba, Milne Bay, and his father is from Karaeta in Gulf province.

Known by other aliases Allah, Kobare and Doboro, he was more popular among his crew as Baker Boy. 

Although,  captured earlier by police twice, he somehow pulled off stunning escapades on both occasions.

Had the warders at the correctional services done a thoroughly clean job in locking him up and throwing the key away, the country would not have gone through the turmoil Allah Kobare Doboro caused.

Baker was first captured  and held in the Gili Gili prison near Hagita, Milne Bay Province. But he pulled off a Houdini like escape on April 3, 2016 and went into hiding.

A few months later, policeman Sam Pisa was shot and killed while attending to a robbery in Alotau. Baker and his lieutenant Mekere escaped from the scene.

They are heard off 1 year later in December 2017 when they rob a bank agency in Alotau. Two innocent people die including a reserve police constable.

In 2018, Baker surfaces in Kupiano, in Central Province where he robs a shop. And returns to Alotau. In June he robs the BSP agency at Hagita near his last home, Giligili prison, and escapes.

In June he is seen again in Kupiano where he robs another supermarket and brazenly steals the Kupiano police station commander's firearm. Instead of returning to Alotau, he flees to the capital Port Moresby where the police task force track his movements.

Eventually they corner him in a motel and take him into custody at Bomana Prison.

While being held in the Bomana Prison outside Port Moresby, Baker escapes in October, 2018 by faking a leg injury. 

Taken to the Port Moresby General Hospital complaining of a knee injury, he jumps out of window and runs away.

His gang, at the height of his terror reign, numbered nearly 70 comrades, although many were tracked down and killed by police.

Others were captured and jailed. To make matters worse, his poor mother and aunt were rounded up by police and charged for allegedly harboring Tommy.

A picture on the front page of the National newspaper this week showed Baker laying dead with his head in a pool of blood, most probably from a chest wound, although no-one outside of the police is certain of his life ending injuries. 

Still hanging from his neck is a Papua New Guinea bilum. In a sad twist, it signified his connection to his mother, to his people, to our land, because a bilum is always a part of a Papua New Guinean's life.

Baker's reign cost the nation millions. The government spent over K2 million to hunt him down. Even the Prime Minister's appeal for Baker to surrender went unheeded.

Businesses were not spared. In Alotau, thousands were lost through various Baker hits, in Kupiano thousands more robbed from the till.

The human toll included 1 policeman, 1 lawyer and many innocent civilians killed.

Baker's follower were tracked down and killed in various shootouts with cops.

Baker left PNG's tourism appeal in tatters after his right hand Mekere robbed foreign visitors in Tawali resort. His piracy activities are well known along the Milne Bay coast and islands.

One thing is certain. Baker Allah Kobare Doboro was possessed by something uncanny and evil. 

The man had no fear for the law. He never feared confronting police in violent gun battles. 

He struck fear in whoever was sent to track him. He struck fear in the communities around him.

But the old adage remains, whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword.

The home of Baker's girlfriend was torched and burnt to the ground. Picture supplied.

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