I paid Army captain who ordered Taraba police killings

Hamisu Wadume, the re-arrested Taraba kidnapper, has confessed that the Army captain who ordered the killings of policemen during his first arrest, works for him.

The captain allegedly ordered soldiers to attack undercover Intelligence Response Team (IRT) operatives who went to Ibi, Taraba State, to arrest Waduje.

The army claimed that the battalion mistook the operatives for kidnappers before opening fire on them, killing three policemen, two civilians and leaving five persons injured.

But Wadume, in a confession on Wednesday, said he paid huge amounts into the army captain’s bank account three weeks ago.

Explaining how he was freed, Wadume said the soldiers took him to the barracks, from where one Captain Balarabe took him to his house, where a welder was invited to cut off the hand and leg chains.

The suspect, alleged to have run three kidnap syndicates in Taraba and Nasarawa states, had a network of major firearms suppliers, it was learnt.

“He has made so many revelations. A lot of things have been said that I don’t want to talk about to avoid jeopardising ongoing investigations. It is a huge network and so many people are involved,” according to police source.

“I can tell you that he confessed to have paid huge money into the Captain’s bank account three weeks ago and that he usually gave each checkpoint N20,000 each time he passed.”