Billionaire kidnapper, Chukwumeme Onwuamadike aka Evans, yesterday recanted his story that the bullet wound on his shoulder was from a drug war in South Africa.

The suspect withdrew his earlier narrative after investigators presented him with allegations made against him by a retired police officer in a national daily.

Evans told his interrogators that he got the wound from a gang member during a disagreement in the sharing formula of the heist from a bank raid in 2006.

The suspect also admitted he was arrested by the police after the shootout among his robbery gang members.

He added that his mother, with the help of a policewoman, got him released from police custody 11 years ago.

The retired officer was once the former officer in charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command.

According the policeman, in 2006, Evans was arrested for bank robbery, but his release was later facilitated by a female superintendent of police.

Asked why he didn’t prosecute Evans back then, the officer retorted that there was a female Superintendent of Police (SP), identified simply as Tina, at the Band Section of the Police College, Lagos, who insisted that the police should drop the case and that Evans was her brother.

“But when she was unable to achieve her aim, she travelled to Imo State. Not long after, we got a message from the Imo State Police Command that they had been searching for Evans and asked us to transfer the case to them so they could continue from where we stopped. Since that time, we did not hear anything. We heard he was later released there,” he was quoted as saying.

The police officer explained that in 2006, robbers attacked a commercial bank in Lagos and went to Iganmu, to share the money.

One of those later arrested was Evans. He was shot by one of his gang members. He was arrested because he couldn’t run. He had lost so much blood.

The senior officer said that back then, Evans was known as Chukwudi.

According to the retiree, there was also a time that Evans’ gang robbed three banks at Alaba International Market in 2005.

He urged the leader of the investigators, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, not to rush Evans’ investigation.

According to him, Evans has links in South Africa, Ghana and other places.

“Bank robbery and hijacking of bullion vans are easy for him and his gang members,” he was quoted as saying.

He alleged that Evans had a penchant for shooting and killing any member he suspected.

One of the police investigators, who interviewed Evans following the newspaper’s report, said: “The bullet wounds are from disagreement over sharing of loot after bank robbery in Lagos in 2006. Evans and his gang members shot one another. Many gang members died, while Evans survived with bullet wounds. Evans has confessed to the bank robbery, shooting and bullet wounds.

“Evans had been lying about how he got that bullet wound for long. But when we showed the newspaper report, he caved in and confessed that the report was true. He said they robbed banks and started shooting one another over sharing of the money. He said that it was his mother, working through the policewoman, who got him out of police custody.”

The Nigerian troops in conjunction with operatives of Department of State Services (DSS) on Sunday arrested 3 suspected Chadian Boko Haram terrorists that belong to Albaranawi faction, in Gombe, Gombe State.

Brigadier General Sani Kukasheka Usman, Director Army Public Relations, in a statement said the 3 suspects, Bilal Muhammed Umar, Bashir Muhammed and Muhammed Maigari Abubakar were arrested at Arawa and Mallam Inna Areas of Gombe metropolis.

The Boko Haram collaborators operates in Chad and mostly northern part of Borno State but came to Gombe State for another heinous assignment.

During the operation, one of them, Bilal Muhammed Umar attempted to escape and was shot on the leg. He was however apprehended and is receiving medical treatment.

“The terrorists were also arrested with Improvised Explosive Device (IED), materials that they could have coupled and attack parts of the State.

“The suspects are in custody undergoing preliminary investigation”, the statement concluded.

A South Africa- based Nigerian businessman, Mr Abayomi Oyetoro, said on Thursday that  his two children were still in critical condition in a hospital after Saturday’s  xenophobic attacks in that country.

Oyetoro told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on telephone from Pretoria, South Africa, that he threw his children, aged six and nine years, over a neighbour`s fence when a mob attacked his house.

“ When they came to my house in Pretoria West, I threw my three children across a neighbour’s fence to save their lives.

“ The youngest hit his skull on the ground while my daughter also got badly injured.

“ As we speak, my children are still in critical condition and we are praying to God to save their lives.

“ Honestly, I do not know the motive of the attack. My house was burnt;  everything was destroyed, including my car and international passport.

“ We are just managing to survive by God`s grace,’’ Oyetoro said.

He said Nigerians and other foreigners were now living in fear over reports of a planned attack on Friday.

Oyetoro  appealed to the Federal Government to come to  their aid following the complete loss suffered  in the attacks.

Indian security personnel walk through the scene of a firefight in Frisal village in Kulgam, some 70 kms south of Srinagar, on February 12, 2017. Four suspected rebels and two Indian army soldiers were killed in a gun battle in a village in Indian-administered Kashmir on February 12, an army spokesman said. The militants were hiding in a south Kashmir village when the army and police surrounded it, a police official said.<br />STRINGER / AFP

Four suspected rebels and two Indian army soldiers were killed in a gun battle in a village in Indian-administered Kashmir on Sunday, an army spokesman said.

The militants were hiding in a south Kashmir village when the army and police surrounded it, a police official said. In the ensuing fire fight four militants and two soldiers were killed.

“Four terrorists were killed and four weapons were recovered from the encounter site,” army spokesman in Srinagar, Col Manish told AFP. “Two soldiers were also martyred and three injured during the encounter,” he added.

The operation was ongoing, Col Manish said. A civilian, the young son of the owner of the house in which the militants were hiding, was also killed, Jammu and Kashmir police chief SP Vaid told AFP.

Three militants managed to escape, a Superintendent of Police, who declined to be identified, told AFP. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since they won independence from Britain in 1947. Both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.

Several rebel groups have for decades fought the 500,000 Indian troops deployed in the region, demanding independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan.

The fighting has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.