BREAkING: ‘Kidnap Kingpin’ Wadume receives heroic welcome in Taraba after jail term

A large crowd welcomed “kidnap kingpin”, Hamisu Bala, better known as Wadume, to his hometown in Ibbi Taraba State, on Sunday.

Wadume, who was arrested by men of the Intelligence Response Team of Inspector-General of Police, in 2019, was released from Kuje Prison in Abuja, on Friday, according to sources.

Prison sources told Daily Trust that he had concluded his jail sentence which ran concurrently.

Daily Trust gathered that the convict was ferried into Ibbi through river Benue, where he was received by thousands of people, including youths and women.

A resident of Ibbi town, Musa Garba, said the town at standstill for Wadume.

Garba said the elderly and youths trooped out to receive Wadume by the river side and from there he went through the town before retiring to his house.

Another resident simply identified as Nuhu said, “We are in festive mood as Wadume regained his freedom and now out of prison and now with us in in his home town Ibbi.”

Meanwhile, Wadumi has visited the Chief of Ibbi chiefdom, Alhaji Salihu Danbawuro, at his palace.

Wadume told the chief that he was at the palace to thank the chief and the entire people of his chiefdom.

He said through out his trial, the chief and his subjects stood firmly with him and prayed for his  safety and good health while in  prison.

The chief, Saliha Danbawuro, told Wadume that he and his subjects were happy that he is out of prison.

“I and the entire people of Ibbi chiefdom are happy that Hamisu Wadume is now back  in Ibbi his home town.” the chief said.

Arrested by police, freed illegally

Controversy trailed his arrest in 2019 after the IRT team of the IGP squad that arrested him were attacked by soldiers. On August 6, 2019, some soldiers attached to Battalion 93, Ibbi-Takum road, led by Tijjani Balarabe, were reported to have set Wadume free and subsequently killed some of the officers who arrested him.

Three policemen and two civilians were killed during the incident, while five other police officers were injured.

The soldiers were now being questioned by a joint panel charged with probing the incident.

In his statement to the joint investigation panel, Balarabe said he used a spoon to open the handcuffs.

Balarabe said he had interviewed one of the injured police officers after Ibrahim Muhammed, an army sergeant, shot at the tyres of one of the vehicles conveying the policemen.

“The guard commander of Gidan Waya told me that the locals arrested one of the suspects and he was with him at the checkpoint and he was having a police ID card; the suspect said he was a policeman from Abuja,” Balarabe was quoted to have said.

“Lt Yushau Saad brought him from Gidan Waya with the ID card. I interviewed him and he said they were sent from Abuja to arrest the alhaji (Wadume). We moved the injured policemen to the hospital and the DCO Wukari (ASP Aondona Iorbee) confirmed that they are policemen.

“When I arrived at the camp, my soldiers and ASP Iorbee and a civilian were removing handcuffs from the alhaji (Wadume). I entered my kitchen and picked a spoon to join them in removing the handcuffs.”

The army captain further explained that he took Wadume and his two sisters to his house while he went to Ibbi town with Saad to retrieve some rifles belonging to the IRT policemen. He said on returning, Wadume had disappeared.

But two weeks after he was freed illegally, Wadume was traced to a house he bought in Kano and rearrested.

Our correspondents, who visited the house located at Yan Dodo after the rearrest, were told that Wadume bought the house a few months before his rearrest.

One of his neighbours, who craved anonymity, said Wadume relocated to the house with some members of his family.

The neighbour said Wadume was captured along with a young man suspected to be his brother.

When suspected Boko Haram militants raided Kuje Prison in 2022, it was reported that Wadume had escaped, but the prison authorities later set the record straight.

Known for charity in his hometown, Wadume contested for a seat in the Taraba State House of Assembly under the platform of the Young Democratic Party (YDP) in 2019.

He later defected from the YDP to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).