How I Became A Millionaire – Kidnap Kingpin Wadume

How I Became A Millionaire – Kidnap Kingpin Wadume

Hamisu Wadume, the Taraba man recently identified as a kidnap kingpin by the police, has denied any involvement in abduction-for-ransom schemes, saying the police were wrong in their categorisation of his activities.

Mr Wadume told police chiefs during his initial interrogation at the Force Headquarters Tuesday afternoon that he acquired his wealth primarily from fishing, which he said he did for decades, according to multiple sources familiar with the questioning.

“But he also admitted to being a 419 by deceiving people with traditional medicine to get millions from them,” police sources say. “He insisted that he was not involved in kidnapping and the 419 was only a fraction of his large wealth.”

Mr Wadume was arrested on Monday night in Kano and brought to the Force Headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday, ending weeks of a manhunt for him.

His skirmish with the police has gripped the country since August 6 when he was rescued by Nigerian soldiers in a fatal deadly encounter with a police team. The team from Inspector-General Intelligence Response Team (IRT) had gone to Taraba to apprehend Mr Wadume in alleged connection to a series of kidnapping incidents across central Nigeria.

Three police officers and a civilian were killed by soldiers from 93 Battalion, who subsequently freed Mr Wadume from the beleaguered police team. The Nigerian Army admitted its personnel killed the police officers but denied it was deliberate, attributing the tragedy to poor communication by the detectives.

The aftermath of the attack left a broader national security bad blood, with the military issuing an advisory to personnel to be wary of police officers across the country going forward.

President Muhammadu Buhari sued for calm amongst concerned authorities and urged a thorough investigation into the attack, an exercise that had since commenced and a report expected in about two weeks.