•Visit crime scene, keep mum •Defence headquarters raises 7-man probe panel
A police investigative team led by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) in charge of Intelligence, Michael Ogbizi, has stormed Jalingo, the Taraba State capital, to unravel the circumstances that led to the killing of three police officers by soldiers at a location on Ibi- Wukari road in the state.
While the police investigators were busy in Taraba combing the scene of the crime, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin, was in Abuja inaugurating a seven-man probe panel into the killing of the police detectives.
The police investigation team had landed at the Danbaba Suntai Airport, Jalingo, around 5.35 p.m. on Thursday and was received by the Commissioner of Police in the state, Alkasim Sanusi.
Although the team declined to make any comment to newsmen, Saturday Tribune gathered that it left Jalingo early on Friday morning for the scene of the crime, at Ibi, to commence investigations.
Spokesperson for the Taraba State police command, David Misar, said via SMS that the investigation panel had concluded its activities at Ibi and that members of the panel were returning to Jalingo, the state capital.
It was gathered that the DIG Ogbizi was accompanied on the trip by the Inspector General’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) commander, Mr. Abba Kyari and other senior police officers.
It was also gathered that an Army team also met with the police team at the scene of the killings.
The probe panel raised by General Olonisakin was in compliance with a directive by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Chief of Defence Staff, on Thursday.
The panel, which was inaugurated on Friday afternoon by General Olonisakin, is saddled with the responsibility of unraveling the circumstances that led to the killing of the policemen by Nigerian Army personnel.
Director of Defence Information, Colonel Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement on Friday, said that the joint investigation panel is headed by Rear Admiral I. T. Olaiya and that it had a representative each from the Nigerian Army, Navy, Air Force the Nigeria Police, Department of State Service and the Defence Intelligence Agency.
According to the statement, the joint committee has commenced work immediately but a time frame for its work was not stated by the Director of Defence Information.
Defence sources told Saturday Tribune that the panel would also visit the scene of the incident in Taraba State and take evidence from all that witnessed the incident.
The source said that the committee would also investigate how the alleged kidnapped kingpin, Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume, escaped when he was said to be in leg and hand cuffs and how to re-arrest him.
Saturday Tribune further gathered that the committee, which was charged to be “very objective”, was also charged not to “hide any fact or cover anybody involved in the killing.”
It was also gathered from the source that “the intention is to unearth the circumstances of the killings in view of questions being raised on how to find ways to put an end to kidnapping by gunmen in military and police uniforms.”
In addition, the committee is to ascertain if the soldiers aided the alleged kidnap kingpin in his escape and to also find solution to how to put an end to this type of incident as the various security services are to work in synergy and fight crime and criminality.
It will be recalled that in a statement on Thursday, the Force Headquarters had said through Mr. Frank Mba, the Force spokesperson, in reaction to the killing of its officers and the reaction to the incident by the Army Headquarters, that “the most important question arising from the Nigerian Army’s press release is: Where is Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume? Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume is a millionaire kidnapper arrested by the Police but paradoxically treated as a ‘‘kidnap victim’’ by the Soldiers and subsequently ‘rescued’ by them. Where is he? Where is the rescued kidnapper?
“Secondly, the press release was silent on the source of the alleged distress report or identity of the complainant, on the strength of whose report the Army claimed had informed their decision to engage in the purported chase and rescue operation. Needless to state that in the true spirit of transparency and accountability, the Nigerian Army ought to have arrested the purported distress caller – if any – for obviously and deliberately furnishing them with false and misleading information. Besides, such arrest should in fact be made public!
“Thirdly, it is not true that the policemen failed to identify themselves as alleged in the press release. The video on the incident, now viral, wherein the voice of one of the soldiers was heard loudly proclaiming that the Policemen were from the Force Headquarters, Abuja speaks volumes. Besides, the presence of the IRT personnel was well known to the Taraba Police Command as the operatives officially and properly documented not only at the state Command Headquarters but also at the Wukari Area Command and the Ibi Divisional Headquarters. As a matter of fact, some of the detectives from the Taraba State Command’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were part of the operation.
“The Force also considers it insensitive, disrespectful and unpatriotic for the press release by the Army to continue to describe policemen on lawful national assignment as ‘suspected kidnappers’ long after it had become crystal clear to the Army that these are law enforcement officers who unfortunately were gruesomely murdered in the line of duty by Nigerian soldiers attached to 93 Battalion, Takum.”