Court Finally Jails Wadume After 10-Month Arrest
He was jailed alongside six of his alleged accomplices, including a police Inspector, Aliyu Dadje.
Other defendants in the amended charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/30/2020, which was entered before the court on June 5 by the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation are Auwalu Bala (aka Omo Razor), Uba Bala (aka Uba Belu), Bashir Waziri (aka Baba runs); Zubairu Abdullahi (aka Basho) and Rayyanu Abdul.
It was alleged that the Inspector, Dadje, as the station officer of Ibi Divisional Police Headquarters at Ibi LGA Taraba state, being aware that an offence of terrorism had been committed by one Capt Ahmed Tuanl Balarabe and his team, in that they attacked and killed three of the IGP IRT team and two civilians that came to arrest Wadume, tampered with the entry made by the leader of the IGP IRT team, Asp Felix Adolije, by tearing off the entry page to cover up for Capt. Balarabe and his team.
According to the charge, the 3rd and 4th defendants (Auwalu Bala and Uba Bala), who are Wadume’s brothers, withheld information about his whereabouts when he was wanted by the police. Uba was equally alleged to have assisted him to sell guns to raise money.
While Abdullahi was arrested by the Police for being in possession of two AK-47 rifles he claimed that it belonged to Wadume, the 5th defendant, Abdul was said to be the one that harbored Wadume in his house after he escaped from custody.
All the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charge that was read to them before trial Justice, Binta Nyako.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Shuaibu Labaran, informed the court that the charge was amended to remove names of some persons that were hitherto mentioned as defendants in the previous charge that was lodged by the Nigerian Police Force.
He said the former defendants were severed from the charge to pave way for expeditious trial of the case.
It will be recalled that among those that were initially listed in the previous 16-count terrorism, murder, kidnapping and illegal arms running charge Police filed before the court on February 3, included 10 soldiers.
Police subsequently blamed its inability to arraign Wadume and the 19 other defendants on alleged refusal of Nigerian Army to release the accused soldiers listed as the 2nd to 11th Defendants.
