Arrested kidnap suspect, Hamisu Wadume, Tuesday provided details of his initial arrest, and how the soldiers of the 93 Battalion Takum, Taraba State, aided his escape. In a video posted on verified Police twitter handle, Wadume, who spoke in Hausa, said when he was arrested, soldiers pursued the police team and opened fire on them.
“My name is Hamisu Bala Wadume. Police came to arrest me. When they arrested me, army chased after them and opened fire. From there, they took me to their headquarters, and cut my handcuffs. I went back to my house and Police came to rearrest me”, he said.
His statement corroborates earlier reports that an army captain aided his escape. Wadume was rearrested Monday evening at his hideout in Kano. His arrest was announced by the Police on Tuesday.
Police spokesman Frank Mba said Wadume was re-arrested in the late hours of Monday “in his hideout at Layin Mai Allo Hotoro area of Kano State.”
The police had earlier arrested Wadume on August 6 in Taraba State but he escaped following a face-off between the police and Nigerian Army along Ibi -Jalingo Road, Taraba State. The army said the soldiers attacked the police in response to a distress call from members of the community to rescue a kidnapped victim and that the police refused to stop at three consecutive times at army checkpoints and failed to identify themselves as police, hence, prompting the army to suspect them as the kidnappers.
Three policemen, including one Inspector and two Sergeants and one civilian, died during the attack while others sustained serious gunshot wounds. “The soldiers thereafter released the handcuffed suspect, Alhaji Hamisu, who is now on the run,” police alleged. It insisted that the Nigerian Army had questions to answer.
The attack sparked tension between the two security agencies. President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a panel to investigate the incident. The army warned its men to be “circumspect” in their dealings with members of the Nigerian police.
The presidential investigation panel was initially scheduled to conclude its findings last week, but the team sought an additional two weeks to wrap up its investigations. The police in its Tuesday statement said the re-arrest will “help in bringing answers to the numerous but hitherto unanswered questions touching on the incident.”
