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| Wadume |
The suspected kidnap kingpin, Alhaji
Hamisu Wadume, who caused the killing of three operatives of the
Inspector-General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Ibib,
Taraba State and a civilian, has been described as a philanthropist who bought
a car for the army captain in charge of the last army check point and other
people in Ibi, Taraba State.
According to source, Wadume became a
person of interest to the IG’s Squad following series of investigations and his
name being mentioned by suspects arrested in different kidnap cases.
It was gathered that nine months
ago, Wadume was so poverty stricken that he couldn’t feed himself , let alone
to cloth himself. But he sudden catapulted into wealth, building houses, buying
cars, motorcycles and buses for people.
The source said: “In Taraba and Nasarawa states, there have been series of
kidnappings. In one of those abductions,
a business mogul was kidnapped and N100million collected from him. There was
another where the kidnappers collected N25million and then another N60million
and many others. It was during investigation that IRT operatives stumbled on
his name and operations. As
at last year, he couldn’t feed himself, let alone to cloth himself. He was poor. But suddenly, within nine
months, he became a multi-million.
“He built houses and bought cars. Nobody
knew the source of his wealth. He bought motorcycles for over 60 people and
bought cars for people for commercial purpose. Suspects arrested for their
involvement in kidnapping, even mentioned his name. One of them disclosed that
their overall leader lives in Ibi, he doesn’t go to operation with them, but
always appears during collection of ransom. The suspect said that he didn’t
know his house. The team went to Ibi and successfully arrested him. Before the
team went to Ibi, they did a letter to the Taraba Commissioner of Police, and
the area commander, who then did a letter to the Divisional Police Officer
(DPO), in charge of Ibi Police Station. The DPO endorsed the letter and the men
moved to make the arrest. There was only a narrow road to the village.
“They saw the soldiers on three
checkpoints and introduced themselves. After arresting Wadume, they went to the
police station to book out. That is the norm, when you book in, you have to
book out. The soldiers are on the payroll of the kidnapper. They didn’t want
him to have the opportunity to testify and mention them during confession.”
A citizen of Ibi, Daleehat
Suleiman Bente, who to his Facebook to write about Wadume said: “Wadume
is the guy, who many believed became rich over night with people questioning his source of wealth, having
known his traceable history and antecedent. He is now at large after he was
allegedly freed by the army while they dispose the police conveying him to Jalingo, the state Capital, from Ibi his hometown,
where he was arrested.”
Bente
explained that he lived in Ibi while growing up and had friends still living
there. He said that he had to ask them about Wadume. He was told that Wadume
became a millionaire overnight, with no traceable job to his name.
This
he said, made many people to speculate that he was either into money ritual
business or into kidnapping, which has now became an emerging lucrative business in
Southern Taraba.
Bente said: “Wadume is very kindhearted to the community
and the Army stationed in Southern Taraba. He is a charity and cheerful giver
who can spend up to N20million a day settling bills of the less privileged in
his community. Wadume is the only philanthropist in Ibi Local Government Area that
has empowered and still empowering the youths, either by giving them interest
free loans as capital to start up a business
or purchasing of vehicles, motorbikes and flying boards for them to do
commercial and earn a living.
“And for his relationship with the Army, it is said
to be very cordial because he is their
leading benefactor in terms of welfare and other privileges. Despite his
charity gesture to the community, there was still sceptism about his source of wealth,
prompting some people to relate the matter to the Police, who placed him under serious investigations
for months before carrying out that sting operation that led to the encounter
with the military.”
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