Kingsley Omonobi – Abuja
CDS to submit to President Buhari
The Defence headquarters panel constituted by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Gabriel Olonisakin to investigate the circumstances that led to the killing of three Police operatives of the IGP Intelligence Response Team (IRT) by soldiers of 73 battalions in Taraba State on August 6, 2019, when kidnapper, Hamisu Wadume, was first arrested have submitted its reported.
Recall that the panel was set up on the directives of President Muhammad Buhari following the tension and hot exchanges between the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Police Force over the killing of police officers and a civilian attached to IRT who had arrested millionaire kidnap kingpin, Alhaji Hamisu Bala Wadume, at Ibbi in Taraba State while on their way to Jalingo.
Rear Admiral TI Olaiya who headed the seven-man panel that included representatives of the Army, Police, DSS, NIA, DIA, Navy and Air force, submitted the report at Defence headquarters on Friday after the CDS gave the panel a one-week extension to do a thorough job.
It was gathered that having received the report, the CDS would study it and make recommendations on it after which it would be submitted to Mr President who will subsequently give final directives on its implementation.
It was however gathered that the panel recommended stiff punishment for both soldiers and officers as well as Policemen and officers found culpable of having colluded with or played ignoble role in the circumstances leading to the killing of the IRT operatives and the civilian as well as the freeing and escape of Hamisu Wadume.
