Abba Kyari, the
deputy commissioner of police, is in dire straits. The celebrated police chief
has now been embroiled in the cyber fraud case against Hushpuppi, the embattled
Nigerian socialite who — according to the US court filing —accused him of
taking a bribe to arrest his fraud accomplice.
Hushpuppi, whose real name is Ramon Abbas, was infamously
arrested in the UAE in June 2020 alongside 11 of his associates over
allegations bordering on hacking, impersonation, scamming, bank fraud, and
identity theft.
His extradition to the US came after the UAE police had
carried out a special operation dubbed ‘Fox Hunt 2’. Hushpuppi was accused of
defrauding 1.9 million persons of N168 billion. The Instagram celebrity was
later arraigned and detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in
Chicago ahead of trial.
On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge on him, standing the risk of 20 years jail term.
Not many saw it coming but it is here all the same: Kyari
was dragged into the saga after the US department of justice quoted Hushpuppi
as telling the court that he bribed the DCP to jail Chibuzor Vincent, an
associate with whom he was locked in a dispute over how to share $1.1 million
proceeds of a fraudulent deal with some Qatari business executives.
Vincent was said to have alerted the victim and told him he
was being scammed by Hushpuppi’s syndicate. It was on this basis, the court
documents stated, that Hushpuppi was said to have contacted Kyari to facilitate
his arrest.
Hushpuppi alleged that Kyari sent him photos of Vincent in
jail and followed this up with a bank account number to which a wire transfer
should be made for the successful arrest and detention of his co-fraudster.
As news of the alleged dealings with the embattled socialite
became public knowledge, Kyari denied the allegations. He said he only
facilitated Hushpuppi’s purchase of native clothing and that there hadn’t been
a bribe. The DCP added that Hushpuppi made a distress call after threats were
allegedly issued to his family by Vincent. But Kyari’s indictment won’t be the
first to be made against the top police boss.
Supercop tasked with high-profile assignments
Kyari, born March 17, 1975, leads the inspector-general of
the police intelligence response team (IGP-IRT). He is regarded as a
no-nonsense investigator and has a track record of being saddled with
high-profile assignments. Kyari led the operation that led to the arrest of
Chukwudi Onuamadike, the notorious kidnap kingpin better known as Evans, in
2017.
Most recently, the crack investigator, who has won the
police medal for courage three years in a row, was deployed to probe the attack
on Samuel Ortom, Benue state governor.
Gunmen had opened
fire on Ortom’s convoy while he was visiting a farm in Benue on
March 20, 2021.
The governor had accused “herders” of carrying out the attack
and Mohammed Adamu, the former IGP, subsequently deployed Kyari’s team to
investigate the incident.
“The Team, led by DCP Abba Kyari – a no-nonsense
investigator – consists of operatives from the Tactical Investigation Units of
the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) and other experienced, crack detectives
with specialized competencies in crime scene investigation and reconstruction,
ballistics, fingerprint analysis and other core areas of forensics,” Frank Mba,
police spokesman, had said.
But despite his well-publicised sterling qualities as a
police officer, Kyari has also been accused of several acts unbecoming of a
supposedly model cop.
N41 million ‘extortion’ case
In October 2020, Kyari was accused of
extorting N41 million from one Afeez Mojeed, a Lagos-based businessman. Mojeed
claimed the extortion was done in 2014 when Kyari was the officer in charge of
the now-disbanded special anti-robbery squad (SARS) in Lagos. The accuser said
he unsuccessfully sought justice at the Independent Corrupt Practices And Other
Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
In a petition filed on October 22, 2020, through Salawu
Akingbolu & Co, and addressed to the Lagos judicial panel of inquiry for
victims of SARS-related abuses, Kyari and his officers were accused of
forcefully taking about 32 items from Mojeed’s house during a raid in 2014. The
businessman, who was at home with his pregnant wife, an 18 month-old son, and
mother-in-law, said he thought it was a robbery.
He said phones, cheque books, bank cards, and documents were
taken. After ransacking the house, Mojeed was reportedly taken to the SARS
office in Ikeja where he was detained for 14 days. He was later “arraigned on a
trumped-up charge” of stealing N97 million. In the documents, it was alleged that for over one year during which the matter was
in court, the police “never showed up or brought any witness”.
“They forcefully took his wedding ring and that of his wife
from them, opened their wardrobe and took the sum N280,000 and the sum of
N50,000 was also taken from his car, after which the Honda Accord (2008) model
was seized and taken away till today,” the petition read, adding that the charges
against him were later struck out in court.
Narrating his ordeal, Mojeed said while in detention, “the
police under the supervision and threat of Abba Kyari (OC SARS) forced
him to sign three Zenith Bank cheques in the sum of N150,000 each,
making N450,000 on October 22 to 23, 2014 and gave the sum to Alabi Olawale
Nurudeen who is one of their cronies to withdraw”.
The police allegedly obtained a password to his bank card
and withdrew another N395,000 between October 20 to 23, 2014. Allegedly
on the directive of Kyari, Mojeed was taken by “one Inspector Fola, Corporal
Bolu and Corporal Akeem to Diamond Bank Ajah branch on October 23 and 24 to
forcefully transfer N41 million and N800,000” from his corporate account into
the account of one Obinna Edward, whom Mojeed stated he had never seen or heard
of before.
Alleged asset seizures, ‘extrajudicial’ killings
In 2018, Amnesty International and the NHRC accused Kyari of illegally depleting the assets of
one Collins Ezenwa, a suspected criminal, after his team shot the man dead.
Ezenwa’s wife, at the time, said Kyari and his team withdrew money from her
late husband’s account and pocketed millions in from his hotels.
Kyari denied corruption amongst his team but did not
categorically address the allegations made by Ezenwa’swife.
Before the hearings of the Lagos judicial panel on #EndSARS,
Kyari’s squad had been accused of extrajudicial killings. In late 2019, a
federal high court sitting in Jos, Plateau had threatened to jail Abubakar Mohammed, the
then-IGP, and Kyari, for disobeying its orders.
This was after the duo failed to produce a suspect, Nanpon
Sambo, who was alleged to have died in police custody in Abuja.
Years after that incident, Kyari — who recently made
headlines after he was spotted at the lavish funeral of Obi
Cubana’s mother — now finds himself in the law’s crosshairs.
The revered criminal hunter is now being hunted for his
alleged sins.
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