By Suleiman Umaru
Barely two weeks after The Value News came out with screaming Headlines: Taraba: Bala Arrested By The Police But freed By Soldiers and Taraba: No Hiding Place For Bala, the millionaire Kidnapper kingpin has been re-arrested by the Police Special Forces in the ancient town of Kano.
The one –time tough talking Bala who goes by the nickname Wadume, while making negotiations for his ransom families of victims became a feather weight, when surrounded by fierce looking Crack Police detectives in his hideout in Kano .He was said to have opened up when he saw the heavy presence of security Operatives and Journalists around him that he was released from police custody by soldiers who cut off his handcuffs and chains on his legs. ‘’Police came to arrest me and when they arrested me , the Army chased after them and opened fire’’, he had said.
The kidnapper kingpin disclosed that the soldiers of the 92 Battalion , Takum , in Taraba state, took him to their Barracks and cut off his handcuffs and released him. ‘’I went back to my house at Ibi, Headquarters of Ibi local government Area of the state but the police came to re-arrest me’’, he further said. He may have taken advantage of the confusion in the locality with the support of his soldier friends to escape to a safe location before relocating to Kano.
Note that on the Orders of Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector General of Police , IGP, the police Special Forces and Intelligence Response Team, IRT , members had intensified their search for him within and outside Taraba state using sophisticated tracking equipment.
Security sources confirmed that he was traced to Layin Mai Allo Hotoro Community by the police Special Team and IRT members who were armed with sophistical tracking equipment which showed his location in the ancient town through phone calls to family members and friends while still into hiding.
The rearrests of the suspect was a clear indication that his Collaborators in the Army and the police are in trouble as he would expose all of them when subjected to interrogation by the Joint military and police panel looking into the killing of the three policemen and two Civilians on the Ibi-Jalingo road. At present , there indications he was being detained at the Force Headquarters where his alleged Collaborators may not have any access to him to plot for his release.
The IGP has every reason to order for his arrest because of the death of the three Crack detectives, an Inspector and two Sergeants , who went for his arrest at Idi, with the support of Kwarba, one of his gang members who had earlier been arrested by the IRT, in order to identify him . Note that five other officers were said to have been injured in the Army shooting. including killing two Innocent Civilians in the process
There are indications that the suspect may have carried along soldiers and policemen to carry out the dirty kidnap Operations in the state. Take for instance , Instances abound as he was said to have made 200 phone calls to the Crime Officer and Station Officer in the Ibi police Station. He was said to have also put out several calls to the Army Captain who facilitates his escape.
More worrisome was the role of the crime officer, CO, and the Station officer at Ibi Poilce Division,the Wadume saga. The Station Officer was said to have torn off the entry that was said to have been made by the IRT members who met their untimely death in the hand of the soldiers at a checkpoint to justify the military claim they were in the state unofficially and were, therefore, mistaken as kidnappers because of the alarm raised by Wadume who brought out his head from the vehicle taking them to the police Headquarters in Jalingo.
Frank Mba, a Lawyer and Deputy Commissioner of Police , DCP, and who incidentally is the police Spokesperson, said the arrest of the Wadume, ‘’will in no doubt , help in bringing answers to the numerous but hitherto unanswered questions touching on the incident and the larger Criminal enterprise of the suspect’’.
The question on the lips of most people was why the ancient town of Kano has suddenly become a haven for kidnappers. Note that the three police Crack detectives killed by Soldiers at a military Checkpoint on the road to Jalingo , the Taraba state Capital , had participated in the arrest of the 13 suspects responsible for the kidnapping of Musa Umar Daura, a former Comptroller of the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone A , of the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, and now Magaji Garin, a District Head in Daura, President Muhammadu Buhari home town, and secured the release of the Monarch. The Kidnappers who had demanded for N30 million ransom from the family to facilitate his release were disappointed as they could not get the amount because of the involvement of the police detectives to join Operation Puff Adder Team in the state to track them.
Security watchers are appreciative of what Adamu , the IGP, has done in the last couple of months to burst major Kidnap cases in the country including the arrest of the killers of Paul Offu, a Catholic Bishop in Enugu which almost tore the country apart. Given the support of the IGP to the various states Commissioner of Police to do their job, the Enugu state Police Command was said to have arrested four suspects allegedly involved in the killing of the Enugu Catholic Cleric Cleric . That much was confirmed by Sulaiman Balarabe, the state Commissioner, of Police.
The bursting of the high kidnap cases may have changed people’s opinion about the police that they could do their job perfectly well if the Force have an IGP that knows his onion. It is not surprising why the state Commissioners of Police, police Special Teams and the IRT members are not waiting to be told what to do but are making efforts to burst Crimes became of Adamu, the IGP’s hold on the Force.
This may have informed why President Muhammadu Buhari, is very much impressed with the current IGP’s efforts to contain Kidnap and other forms of Criminality in the country. Recall that the Katsina state born Nigerian President had directed Gabriel Olonisakin, a General and Chief of Defense Staff to set up a probe panel on the Wadume saga.
In spite of the fact that the Police had rearrested Wadume, the notorious Kinapper kingpin in Taraba state, sources in Defense Headquarters , Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, said it will not stop the on- going probe and investigation of the Army officers and soldiers identified in the killing of the three policemen. Many had expected him to Congratulate Adamu and his officers for rearresting the Criminal , showing that that the Military are not happy that the arrest of the Criminal was not made by them. The Police had feared that the Criminal may be killed if he was cited first by the soldiers because of their strong connection.
