Wadume: Kidnapper freed after serving jail term

Kidnap kingpin, Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume (middle) at the police headquarters after his arrest in Abuja in 2019.

Infamous kidnap kingpin, Hamisu Bala, known as Wadume has been freed after serving a seven-year jail term.

The spokesman of the Nigerian Correctional Service, (NCoS), Abubakar Umar, confirmed Wadume’s release.

Wadume was sentenced to seven years in prison following his arrest and arraignment on kidnapping charges in August 2022 but his sentence was backdated to 2019 when he was first arrested.

“He, (Wadume), has served his full term and has been released from custody Saturday in Abuja,” Umar said.

“His sentence commenced administratively in August 2019.”

Bala was first arrested in Ibi, Taraba state by the Intelligence Response Team, (IRT), of the Inspector General of Police on 6th August 2019.

He escaped police custody while being transported to Abuja from Ibi. He was aided by some soldiers belonging to 93 Battalion, Takum which at that time was led by one Captain Tijjani Balarabe who allegedly shot at police personnel conveying Wadume.

The attack led to the death of three policemen, two civilians and wounding five others.

Wadume was later rearrested by the police in Kano and charged to court in February, 2020 alongside Balarabe and 18 others.

Reports said former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, who took over the case in June 2020, controversially amended the charges brought against Wadume to exempt Captain Balarabe and nine other soldiers charged as co-accused.

The prosecution reportedly failed to prove the kidnapping charges in which Wadume is accused of in the kidnapping case of one Usman Garba, also known as Mayo. Wadume was alleged to have collected N106 ransom.

Reacting to news of Wadume’s release from prison, Executive Director, Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, (CISLAC), Auwalu Rafsanjani, described the release “Misplacement of judicial justice system in Nigeria.”

He said “Those who are supposed to received stiff penalty for atrocities they committed are being pampered and given all sorts of leverages to come back and continue with their atrocities.

“What has happened just goes to show how administrative justice system is Nigeria is not actually responding to justice in Nigeria.

“Somebody who has committed these degree of atrocities, you are now treating him like a king; this is going to motivate and encourage more people to commit these crimes because he will come back and continue to terrorize the public.This in an ideal society should not happen.”

Rafsanjani laments that “People who are innocent are languishing in prison, some of them have spent 20 years, 15 years in prison without trial.

“Now somebody who has committed these huge atrocities against innocent people is being given few years of jail term and is now released.

“I think that the Nigerian state should be responsible for the level of insecurity, kidnappings, terrorism that is going on in the country because they have not taken necessary steps to deal with that and I think this is frustrating for the Nigerian people who have suffered from the consequences of kidnappings, armed robbery and other criminals terrorizing the Nigerian state.”