Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced notorious kidnapper, Hamisu Bala, also known as Wadume, and four others to seven years in prison.
Others charged alongside Wadume are Aliyu Dadje, a police inspector, who was the station officer at the police headquarters at Ibi Local Government Area of Taraba State.
Others are Auwalu Bala (aka Omo Razor), Uba Bala (aka Uba Delu), Bashir Waziri (aka Baba Runs), Zubairu Abdullahi (aka Basho) and Rayyanu Abdul.
In the judgement delivered on July 22 and made available to journalists yesterday, Justice Nyako found Wadume, Dadje, Bala, Abdullahi and Abdul guilty of the charges levelled against them.
She sentenced Delu, Abdullahi, and Abdul to seven years’ imprisonment, while Dadje was sentenced to three years imprisonment for tampering with the record to conceal a crime.
The judge, however, discharged and acquitted Omo Razor and Baba Runs, for want of evidence.
Wadume and his cohorts were arraigned by the Attorney General of the Federation and charges with kidnapping, murder, terrorism and possession of illegal arms.
The charges followed the killing of three police officers from the Intelligence Response Team, Abuja, and two civilians on August 6, 2019 by some soldiers.
The policemen had arrested Wadume at Ibi before they were ambushed on the road by the military men.
Ten military officers were charged along with the convicts but their trial were separated for departmental reasons.
The officers include Captain Tijjani Balarabe, Staff Sgt. David Isaiah, Sgt. Ibrahim Mohammed, Corporal Bartholomew Obanye, Private Mohammed Nura, Lance Corporal Okorozie Gideon, Corporal Marcus Michael, Lance Corporal Nvenaweimoeimi Akpagra, Staff Sgt. Abdulahi Adamu and Private Ebele Emmanuel.
Nigerians react
Nigerians have reacted negatively to the judgement as lenient, unjust and pervasive.
Some, amongst those who spoke to News Band, opined thus:
“This sentence, is way too lenient, for crimes of murder, kidnapping and possession of firearms.”
“What do you expect, sir, Captain Tijani Balarabe of the NA who confessed to removing Wadume’s handcuffs and helping him to escape, and 10 other soldiers who were involved in the criminal act were never prosecuted.
“Malami struck off the names of all the soldiers from the charge sheet prepared by the police. Those police officers just died for nothing.”
“Very sad. It is this kind of injustice that breads even more crisis.”
(News Band)
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