Taraba Police Killings Latest: Army Captain Had 191 Phone Chats With Wanted Kidnapper

The Nigerian Army Captain who allegedly ordered soldiers on
security check-point along the Ibi-Jalingo Expressway in Taraba
State, to attack and kill police operatives attached to the
Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team,
IRT, has been identified, According to Vanguard reports^[1]

our correspondent gathered, yesterday, that police investigation
carried out so far has revealed that telephone conversations
between the kidnap kingpin, Wadume and the Captain , were about 191
within the space of one month between July 9, 2019 and August 6,
2019. The source explained that the police authorities believed
that the army captain might have been providing cover for the
kidnapper, who is said to have received hundreds of millions as
ransom from his victims.

Vanguard gathered that the Army Captain , who is currently
undergoing interrogation at the Defence Headquarters Abuja, was
arrested alongside five other Army personnel, who were alleged to
have taken part in the horrific killing of the three policemen and
their two civilian agents in an operation to arrest a notorious
kidnapper, Alhaji Hamisu Balla, alias Wudume, in Ibi area of Taraba
State.

Vanguard learned yesterday that the arrested solders confessed
that they received orders to attack the policemen from the captain,
whom they said informed them that Wadume had been kidnapped and was
being transported in a silver-coloured Toyota Hiace Bus.

A source at the Defence Headquarters, Abuja, told Vanguard that
the soldiers claimed that they acted squarely on the orders of the
captain, being their superior officer, but Police sources at Force
Headquarters Abuja, disclosed that the police authorities have
established strong links between the army captain and the notorious
kidnapper, alleging that the army captain was on the kidnapper’s
payroll.

The source added further that its investigations have also
revealed that the army captain, who was not present in Ibi Town at
the time the IRT operatives arrested Wadume, might have ordered his
men to attack and kill the IRT operatives as well as rescue his
friend, the kidnapper.

Petition against Wadume received

Meanwhile, Vanguard also gathered, yesterday, that the IRT’s
manhunt to arrest and bring down Wadume’s kidnapping empire began
in March 2019, when it received a petition from one Sheriff Umar of
Kirikinua South Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

It was gathered further that the petitioner reported that his
cousin, Usman Mayo was kidnapped on the 15th of February, 2019 at
Takum Local Government Area of Taraba State and his kidnapper
demanded the sum of N200 million as ransom for his release.

The source explained that the family of the kidnapped victim
negotiated and paid the sum of N85 million first, on March 11,
2019, but the abductee was not released. He said they paid an
additional N15 million, on March 16, 2019, making a total sum paid
to the kidnappers N100 million and the kidnappers refused to
release their victim insisting that that the family must pay the
N200million they demanded.

The source explained that the family reported to the police and
the IRT was drafted to investigate and track down the suspects
behind the kidnapping and rescue the victim. It was learned that
while investigations into the matter commenced, members of the
kidnapped victim’s family paid an additional N20m to the kidnappers
and the victim was released, but the police discovered during
investigations that Wadume had strong links to the kidnappers, who
got N120 million as ransom from their victim.

I sold 6 AK-47 rifles to Wadume — Ajomo

The police source, further disclosed that it investigations also
revealed that Wadume, had bought several AK-47 rifles from a
notorious trans-border arms dealer, Ojomo Adebowale Gbenga, who was
arrested in May 2019, by operatives of the IRT for supplying heavy
arms and ammunition to kidnappers and armed robbers.

45-year-old Ojomo, said to be a major arms dealer in the
South-Western part of the country, made startling revelations about
the fleeing Wadume during an interview.

Ojomo, who was earlier in the year paraded by police authorities
over his criminal activities and later detained in Lagos, told
Vanguard that he met Alhaji Wadume four years ago in Benue State
and had been selling arms to him under the guise of using them to
fight terrorist Fulanis.

Speaking with Vanguard, Ojomo said that he got to know Wadume
through his business partner, Moses in Benue State, and he told him
that he needed rifles to fight herdsmen who were killing farmers in
his community. The gun runner explained that he got all the rifles,
which he sold to Wadume and his friends from Burkina Faso, Mali and
Libya and he said he sold the arms to them because they told him
that they were having community clashes.

He further disclosed: “I started selling fire arms since 1993
after my secondary school. I worked with a company that deals on
licensed arms in 1993 and I left in 1996 and went to school but, I
linked up with arms dealers in Ibadan, which is the headquarters of
arms dealing in the south western part of the country. I started
selling automatic firearms which is prohibited, then one of my
friends who is now late, Moses led me to the north. He took me to
Benue State and I sold arms to several people, including Alhaji
Hamisu (Wadume). He came to me through Moses’ contacts and they
identified him as a don. You know arms dealing is a cartel
business. I knew very little about him and I sold eight rifles to
him in 2015 and in January 2019, he called again and told me that
he needed 10 rifles, but I had only six and because he was in
hurry, I sold them to him at N800,000 each, and the bullets for
N350,000 per can. But after my arrest, I gave information about him
to the police. It was while in detention I heard he has been
arrested.

Police inspector arrested, recants

Also, a Police Inspector who was accused of informing the Army
that operatives of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence
Response Team that visited Ibi community in Taraba state, last week
to effect the arrest of the suspected kidnap kingpin did not report
to Police authorities, has been arrested.

Preliminary investigation, as reliably gathered, revealed that
the policeman was cajoled to say so in order to cement evidences by
troops of the 93 Battalion that the operatives were not only
kidnappers but were there on an illegal duty.

It was also learned that one of the villagers who allegedly
collected the firearms from the dead policemen revealed during
interrogation that the weapons belonging to the slain police
officers were collected from him by some soldiers.

Vanguard learned that the Police inspector attached to Ibi
Police Station confirmed that the operatives visited the station to
inform the senior officer there that they had concluded their
operations and were leaving with the arrested suspect.

Unconfirmed reports said the policeman was given an undisclosed
amount of money to maintain his stand that he told the troops that
the policemen did not report at the station.

However, sources said the Inspector denied during interrogation
at Force Headquarters, Abuja, that he did not collect any money
from the Army.

It was further learned that about three villagers collected the
firearms that were flung in different places into the bush after
the police team was shot, when their vehicle somersaulted. One of
them was said to have taken the arms to his home from where it was
collected by the soldiers.

A villager who spoke on the condition of anonymity revealed that
the suspected kidnap kingpin who is still on the run, is a popular
person in Ibi community.

He was said to have contested for the House of Assembly, Ibi
constituency in the last election, under the Young Democratic
Party, but lost.

The 35-year-old man, said to be a petty trader, was revered in
the community, due to his philanthropic nature.

He was said to have bought motorcycles for some youths, some of
who thronged the scene where the operatives were killed, jubilating
that their benefactor’s enemies had been overpowered.

At the moment, villagers in Ibi community are said to be keeping
sealed lips on what transpired during the arrest of the suspected
kidnapper, last week, for fear of being attacked by loyalists to
the suspect.

Some of those close to the kidnap suspects have taken to their
heels, apparently to avoid being arrested over his whereabouts.

Widow to address press today

Meanwhile, widow of the slain Inspector Mark Ediale, who is yet
to come to terms with the rude shock of her husband’s demise, has
left Lagos for the Force headquarters, Abuja, where she was
received by senior police officers who condoled her and other
widows over the tragic incident.

But her late husband’s family, it was reliably gathered, will be
briefing journalists in Abuja today, where some salient questions
would be posed to killers of their son.

The family, Vanguard learned, is requesting an explanation on
how Inspector Ediale died, when he was seen alive in a video clip
that went viral.

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