Ex-convict shot dead for setting Kogi politician ablaze

Kabir Bala, a notorious criminal in Kogi, has been shot dead by the Joint Security Team in the state.

Bala, who was neutralised during a gun duel with the Joint Security Team, was linked to the death of the woman leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Salome Abu.

Disclosing this development in a press conference, Kogi Commissioner of Police (CP), Akeem Yusuf said Bala met his Waterloo at Ejule, in the Ofu Local Government Area of the state on Wednesday, June 21, 2023.

The CP recalled the numerous atrocities attributed to the deceased and how he was previously pardoned.

His words: “It would be recalled that the Kogi State Government, in October 2018, granted pardon in the prerogative of mercy as part of rehabilitation to one notorious gang leader named Kabir Bala, aka Okwo, in Ejule, Ofu LGA.

“However, the said Kabir Bala remained an unrepentant criminal with lots of atrocities traced to him which includes dealing in illegal arms, kidnappings and killings in the state.

“Several cases had been traced to him such as the burning alive of Mrs Salome Abu, a PDP woman leader in Olu LGA, in her residence on November 2015, at Ochadamu, and the killing of two gala youths, Umoru Abeh and Unerwu Sule on April 20, 2022, at Ejule.”

According to Yusuf, Bala also killed five Fulani herders including Ibrahim, Haruna and Shuaibu Wang on Alloma Road, in the Ofu LGA in April 2022, and Muhammed and Dauda on March 3, 2023.

“Other crimes committed by Kabir Bala and his gang included an attack on troops of the Nigerian Navy and dispossessing them of four rifles at the Alloma village on March 4, 2022. However, the firearms were later returned to the Navy following a high-powered intervention.

“Attack on Elisha Aya, a pastor and founder of the Kingdom Faith Assembly, Ejule, on March 18, 2022, who later paid N1m to Bala as a levy for establishing a church; invasion of Egane Fulani settlement; burning of 213 huts; rustled 122 cows on December 25, 2022, and assault on the Lord’s Chosen Church, Ejule, on January 29, 2023, for disturbing his hotel with their service, during which a worshipper, Joy Abuh, sustained a gunshot injury on her left hand,” he added.

The police boss said Bala was also responsible for seven kidnappings along Itobe-Anyigba Highway from Friday, May 5 to Sunday, May 28, 2023.

He added that based on the above facts, the decision reached at the state security council meeting held on June 20, 2023, that the state pardon granted to Bala in 2018 be revoked immediately while security agencies must go after him and arrest him immediately for prosecution alongside known accomplices.