Tijjani Balarabe, a Nigerian army captain, has admitted to helping Hamisu Bala (Wadume), an alleged kidnapping king, to remove his handcuffs and help him escape, reports.
On 6 August 2019, soldiers from the 93rd Battalion, Ibbi Takum Street, led by Balarabe, allegedly freed Wadume and then killed some of the officers who arrested him.
Three policemen and two civilians were killed in the incident, while five other policemen were injured.
The soldiers are being questioned by a joint committee to investigate the incident.
In his statement to the joint committee of inquiry investigating the incident, Balarabe said that he used a spoon to remove his handcuffs.
Although he received N106.3 million in ransom money, Wadume is said to have killed his victim, Usman Garba, because his family did not provide him with the N20 million he had demanded.
Balarabe said he interviewed one of the injured policemen after Ibrahim Muhammed, an army sergeant, shot out the tyres of one of the vehicles carrying the policemen.
“The commander of Gidan Waya’s guard told me that the villagers had arrested one of the suspects and that he was with him at the checkpoint and had a police badge; the suspect said he was a police officer from Abuja,” Balarabe was quoted as saying.
“Lieutenant Yushau Saad brought him in with the identification of Gidan Waya.
I interviewed him and he told me that they had been sent from Abuja to arrest the Alhaji (Wadume).
We took the injured policemen to the hospital and DCO Wukari (ASP Aondona Iorbee) confirmed that they were police officers.
“When I arrived at the camp, my soldiers and ASP Iorbee and a civilian just took off the handcuffs of the Alhaji (Wadume).
I went to my kitchen and took a spoon to remove the handcuffs along with them.
The army captain further explained that he was taking Wadume and his two sisters to his house while he was going with Saad to the town of Ibbi to get some rifles from the IRT police. On his return, he said that Wadume had disappeared.
“Before going to the city, Hamisu (Wadume) and his two sisters were in our living room. When I returned to the camp, I couldn’t find Hamisu.
I asked my CSM as my closest relative (officer) in the camp, he said he didn’t know when he was leaving,” he said.
“I called Alhaji (Wadume) and he told me he was on a drip in a clinic. I went to the clinic, he wasn’t there. I called him again, but he had turned his phone off.
All efforts to locate Alhaji were unsuccessful.
Balarabe also said Wadume had a good relationship with Taraba state security officials, including the state police commissioner.
He said, “I got the number of the police commissioner of Hamisu because they are good friends. He called the CP before asking me to call him about a case of Fulani and Jukun.
He admitted that he had asked Iorbee to turn off his phone “so the military police couldn’t reach him.
In addition to Balarabe, other accused officers are David Isaiah, Staff Sergeant; Ibrahim Mohammed, Corporal; Bartholomew Obanye, Corporal; Mohammed Nura, Private; Okorozie Gideon, Corporal; Markus Michael and Nvenaweimoeimi Akpagra, both corporals; Abdullahi Adamu, Staff Sergeant; and Ebele Emmanuel, Staff Sergeant.
These officers were initially brought together as defendants in the case brought by the police in a federal court in Abuja.
Judge Binta Nyako ordered the presentation of the accused officers at the request of Prosecutor Simon Lough, who informed the court that the Nigerian Army had refused to release the suspected officers for prosecution, despite the request of the police who were pursuing them.
However, the Attorney General’s office has taken over the prosecution of the case and the names of the army officers have been removed from the charges.