Kidnapping, Wadume’s trial and FG

Almost one year after a 33-year old alleged kidnap kingpin, Alhaji Hamisu Bala, popularly known as Wadume was arrested by the police alongside 19 others over terrorism, kidnapping and dealing in prohibited arms, the Federal Government is still having difficulty prosecuting the suspects.

The 19 others included two policemen and seven civilians who are in the custody of the Nigeria Police and 10 soldiers who are in the custody of the Nigerian Army.

It would be recalled that Wadume and the 19 others were arrested after the August 6, 2019 attack on members of a special anti-crime squad from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Office by soldiers of the 93 Battalion, Takum, Taraba State.

The squad members had travelled to Taraba to arrest Wadume following a petition it received in March 2019 from one Sheriff Umar of Kirikinua South Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

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

The petitioner explained that the family of the kidnapped victim reportedly negotiated and paid the sum of N85 million first on March 11, 2019 but the abductee was not released.

He said they paid additional N15 million on March 16, 2019, making a total sum paid to the kidnappers N100 million but the kidnappers refused to release their victim insisting that the family must pay the N200 million they demanded.

In a bid to curb the kidnapping activities of the ring of criminals in the geo-political zone, the Intelligence Response Team led by ASP Felix Adolije acted swiftly and succeeded in arresting Wadume in Ibi town.

However, while taking Wadume to the state police command in Jalingo for interrogation, soldiers reportedly attacked them.

The soldiers had reportedly acted on an alarm alleging the kidnap of Wadume by some individuals in a Hummer bus which reportedly made a senior military officer to inform all military checkpoints along Ibi-Wukari Road to be at alert.

Whereas, the alleged Hummer bus mentioned in the distress call conveyed Police personnel of the IGP-IRT who were on a legitimate duty in Taraba State, the military checkpoints in the area were also legitimately deployed by troops of Headquarters 93 Battalion, Takum, to checkmate communal clashes, kidnapping and armed robbery which were prevalent threats in Wukari Ibi area.

The soldiers who allegedly had wrong information took the occupants of the Hummer bus conveying Wadume and the police detectives for suspected kidnappers, and rained bullets on it, killing three police personnel – Inspector Mark Ediale, Sergeants Usman Danzumi, Dahiru Musa and a civilian.

Wadume consequently took advantage of the situation to escape.

He was however re-arrested about two weeks after in the Layin Mai Allo Hotoro area of Kano State by Inspector General of Police (IGP)’s Intelligence Response Team on August 19.

After the incident, there was a big row between the police and the Nigerian Army, a development that prompted President Muhammadu Buhari to order an immediate investigation into the unfortunate incident that led to the killing of the three Nigerian Police Force (NPF) personnel.

The Chief of Defence Staff, General AG Olonisakin following Buhari’s directive constituted a Board of Inquiry (BOI) to investigate the incident.

All the soldiers involved were therefore made to face the panel.

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on February 3, 2020 eventually filed a 16-count charge against Wadume and the 19 others including the soldiers but up till now, the trial is yet to commence.

Although the prosecution made attempts, a couple of times, to arraign the suspects, a Federal high court assigned to take the case could not proceed simply because of the absence of the soldiers who are on the charge sheet.

The soldiers are Ahmed Tijani Balarabe (Captain), David Isiah (Staff Sgt), Ibrahim Mohammed (Sgt), Bartholomew Obanye (Cpl), Mohammed Nura (Private), Okoroze Gideon (L/Cpl), Markus Michael (Cpl), Nvenaweimoemi Akpagra (L/Cpl), Abdullahi Adamu (Staff Sgt) and Ebele Emmanuel (Private).

But the two policemen— Aondona A. Iorbee (ASP) and Aliyu Dadje (Inspr) and the seven civilians in the custody of the police had always attended court except on June 3 when four of the civilians could not make the court because of the subsisting lockdown in the country.

The civilians are Auwalu Bala (a. k. a Omo Razor), Uba Bala (a. k. a Uba Delu), Ahmad Suleiman (a. k. a Dan Ball), Bashir Waziri (a. k. a Baba Runs), Zubairu Abdullahi (a. k. a Basho), Hafizu Bala (a. k. a Mai welder) and Rayyanu A. Abdul.

But on June 3, 2020, the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami had announced at the Federal high court sitting in Abuja that his office had taken over the prosecution of Wadume and the 19 others.

Malami said he invoked section 174(2) of the 1999 Constitution (As amended) to take over the prosecution of the case.

A senior lawyer from the Federal Ministry of Justice, Magaji Labaran who lamented that some of the accused persons in the case were not in court sought a short adjournment to enable him put things in order and liaise with the arresting and investigating agencies to ensure that all the defendants are brought to court at the next adjourned date.

The trial judge, Justice Binta Murtala Nyako consequently adjourned till June 8 for the arraignment.

We commend the doggedness of the Nigeria Police so far in arresting the suspected kidnap kingpin, Wadume and subsequent filing of a 16-count charge charge against him and his alleged accomplices.

We are however not comfortable that the suspects are yet to be arraigned since they were arrested about one year ago although for no fault of the police.

Going by the available facts regarding the time between the police and the army with the litigative history of the case, the only way forward is for the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF) to take over the case file as it had done for justice to be done in the matter without further delay.

Which is why we applaud the step taken by Mr Abubakar Malami (SAN) to invoke his powers under the Constitution to take over the prosecution of the case with speed to send strong signal to others in the society engaging in similar criminal offence.

The trial must start now without further delay!