He was however convicted of escaping from lawful custody and unlawfully dealing in prohibited firearms and sentenced to seven years imprisonment, starting from the day he was arrested.
A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has discharged suspected Taraba State kidnap kingpin, Bala Hamisu, popularly known as Wadume and others on charges of terrorism, conspiracy and kidnapping.
He was however convicted of escaping from lawful custody and unlawfully dealing in prohibited firearms and sentenced to seven years imprisonment, starting from the day he was arrested.
Wadume and his co-defendants are standing trial on 13 amended counts of criminal charges bordering on terrorism, murder, kidnapping and collection of a ransom of N106 million, among others.
The then Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had originally filed 16 counts bordering on terrorism, murder, kidnapping and illegal arms running against Wadume and the others.
They were accused of conspiring to commit a felony, to wit: acts of terrorism by attacking and kidnapping one Usman Garba, aka Mayo, at his filling station in Takun, thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 17 of the Terrorism (Prevention) Amendment Act 2013.
Some soldiers led by Captain Tijjani Balarabe were also named in the charges but the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, on taking over the case from the police on June 3, removed the soldiers’ names from the charges.
The minister later explained that he withdrew charges against the soldiers to allow them to be court-martialled by the Nigerian Army.
Other defendants in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/30/2020 are Aliyu Dadje (a police inspector), Auwalu Bala (aka Omo Razor), Uba Bala (aka Uba Delu), Bashir Wazlri (aka Baba Runs), Zubairu Abdullahi (aka Basho) and Rayyanu Abdul.
Justice Nyako, in the judgment delivered in July, struck out 11 of the 13 counts filed by the office of the AGF and convicted Wadume of counts 2 and 10 of the charge, which were escaping from lawful custody and unlawfully dealing in prohibited firearms.
Wadume was first arrested in Ibi, Taraba State, by members of the Intelligence Response Team of the Inspector-General of Police on August 6, 2019, before soldiers led by Balarabe aided his escape from the custody of the policemen and ferried him to Abuja.
Three policemen and two civilians were killed during the incident, while five other police officers were injured.
Those killed in the attack included Inspector Mark Ediale, 36, Sgt. Dahiru Musa, 40, Owolabi Babajide, 24, Farouk Bashir, 30, and Usman Danazumi, 44.