NAN had reported that the incident occurred along Ibi-Jalingo Road in August 2019 and the officers were of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
HURIWA, a frontline rights advocacy also condemned the reported invasion by armed bandits and the kidnapping of some Senior Seminarians at the Good Shepherd Catholic Major Seminary, situated in Kakau, along Kaduna-Abuja road on January 8, 2020.
HURIWA in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director, Miss Zainab Yusuf on Thursday, called on the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu to ensure that these kidnapped Catholic Priests are freed unharmed even as the spate of targeted kidnappings of Christian clerics and Christian schools in Kaduna state are decisively brought to an end and the perpetrators arrested, prosecuted and punished for these heinous crimes against humanity.
HURIWA said: “Nigerians need to know if the serving Army Captain Tijani Balarabe allegedly accused of ordering soldiers to intercept the cops who had then arrested the kidnappers and freed the key suspected kidnapping chieftain Alhaji Wadume, has been cleared just as Nigerians need to be told what steps have been adopted by the Defence headquarters and the police hierarchy to ensure that all those indicted for the cruel murders of the police detectives are made to face the full weight of the law.
“Nigerians need closure in this particular case because when it occurred the same Nigerians were inundated with avalanche of information by the relevant authorities on this vicious crime of assassination of armed functionaries of the Nigerian State who were in the line of duty.”
HURIWA expressed sadness that the entire scenario seems to have been swept under the carpet of impunity just as the police hierarchy appears to have moved on and forgotten about the case.
The Rights group said the consequences of failing to decisively resolve this high profile criminal scandal like many others is that it will create the graphic picture that impunity has become acceptable just as other police operatives would see it that their lives matter not if in the event that they are required to make supreme sacrifices.
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HURIWA recalled that three Police officers transporting Wadume from Ibi-Wukari area of Taraba state were killed by some soldiers over 5 months ago.
The killings which led to an outrage prompted a directive for a joint investigation from President Muhammadu Buhari. Also, the suspected kidnapper, Wadume was rearrested by some Police officers led by Abba Kyari in his hideout at Layin Mai Allo Hotoro area of Kano state in the late hours of Monday, August 19.
The Rights group also charged President Muhammadu Buhari to implement an effective security strategy to put an end to the killings of Nigerians by armed hoodlums, armed Fulani herdsmen and bandits as has recently happened in Kogi state.
“Nigeria needs to set up a joint security anti-kidnapping, anti-bandits’ task force to be drawn from all the security agencies and to operate under a single chain of command answerable to the National security Adviser to the president,” HURIWA said.
NAN