Drug deal: NPF demotes DCP Abba Kyari to Assistant Commissioner of Police

OBIORA IFOH, Abuja

 

Disciplinary Committee of the Nigeria Police Force has recommended a demotion of DCP Abba Kyari to Assistant Commissioner of Police(ACP) after being indicted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, for fraud.

Kyari made headlines last year after court documents linked him to disgraced fraudster, Ramon Olorunwa Abass alias Hushpuppi.

The committee arrived at its decision after reviewing a report by a Special Investigation Panel set up to investigate Kyari by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba.

The Committee revealed that Kyari fraternised with fraudsters and also violated the Social Media policies of the Nigeria Police Force by responding to the FBI’s indictment on his Facebook page without recourse to laid down procedures.

The Police Service Commission has earl suspended Kyari and has given an ultimatum for a completion of all investigations into the police officer.

The embattled police chief, however, is currently involved in another serious crime. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency(NDLEA) declared him wanted on Monday after he was caught attempting to bribe an official of the agency in order to facilitate the release of seized cocaine.

Meanwhile, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. Gen Buba Marwa (Retd), has said the arrest of the suspended Commander of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT),  Kyari, is a clear message that no one would be spared in the agency’s ongoing war against illicit drug business.

Marwa said this on Wednesday in an address in Abuja during a training on Sensitization on Drugs and Drug Prevention, Treatment and Care (DPTC) organized by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for NLDEA personnel and selected journalists.

He said that the system cannot allow those given the responsibility to fight crime, which includes the matter of drugs to themselves be proponents of it.

The anti-narcotics czar said the fight against drug abuse is serious business and the agency is committed to pursuing a drug free nation.

He said: “The media has a very important role to play in our society. The business of getting information out needs to be accurate and professionally done especially in the business of drug control, drug abuse, trafficking, there are technicalities that you need to get sufficient knowledge of the terrain so that when you get the word out, it is gotten out accurately because you mould the opinions of millions. It is for this reason that I urge the journalists to please take this training seriously and take full advantage of it.

“While we are at it there is an ongoing play which we are witnessing and I have followed the role of the media even in it. It is a serious business that is ongoing. We all are responsible. We want a drug free nation. We may not get to zero level, but definitely there is a certain minimum acceptability standard that we are all pursuing.

“And those given the responsibility to fight crime which includes the matter of drugs cannot themselves be proponents of it. This message I believe we have sent abundantly clear.”

Responding, Country Representative of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Oliver Stolpe, said more is still required to be done in the fight against drug abuse.

He said, “I think there is still more to be done because I still believe that most Nigerians perceive drug use as more of a failure of some sorts of basically those people that are using drugs.

“It has not yet been fully appreciated that drug use is a health condition first and foremost and it is a health condition that affects this nation much more severely than I think there is a true awareness of.

“Just to give you an idea. HIV/AIDS that USAID and international development partners have spent billions to fight to put under control affects 1.9 million Nigerians as we speak. COVID-19 affects roughly half a million people.

“The drug use epidemic in terms of pure use affects around 40 million Nigerians as we speak, and around 3 million are affected with what we would refer to as a drug use disorder. It means they would require medical intervention to stop using drugs. So this is a higher number than HIV/AIDS or COVID-19 and yet I think in terms of what is being put towards addressing this issue, it falls significantly short of other efforts.”

Stolpe added: “That is not to say other efforts are less important. It is just to say you need to understand where your public health priorities stand, where they are and how much resources are you putting against them to address them. So it is really critical and that is the message that I hope you will continue to help us to spread.”

Similarly, NDLEA, has said that it has no reason to shield anyone who may be indicted in the course of the ongoing investigation of a 25kg cocaine deal involving a gang headed by Abba Kyari.

The Agency in a statement on Wednesday said it remains committed to evidence based investigation and its resolve cannot be weakened by any misrepresentation of facts.

It read: “To correct some inaccuracies in the information in the public space that NDLEA officers

at the Enugu airport were the ones who received from the cartel details about the mule coming from Addis Ababa, the Agency wishes to quote from the transcript of Abba Kyaris recorded conversation with our undercover officer and a portion of ASP James Bawas statement to the police as documented in the police investigation report, a copy of which was made available to the Agency, to state that its an established fact that it’s the Abba Kyari’s team that was contacted by the cartel and without doubt the records clearly show how their ring works.

“Recall that after NDLEA requested for Kyari and others for interrogation, they were questioned by the police, after which they were handed over along with the report of their interrogation.

“According to the police investigation report, ASP James Bawa in his statement to the police reveals that he was called by an informant identified as IK from Brazil who told him that a drug courier will be arriving on board Ethiopian Airlines in Enugu. He explained further that a pointer from IK, the Brazil based informant met with him at about 1420hrs on 19th January 2022 outside the airport and showed him a picture of the courier. Subsequently, they sighted the suspect as he exited the airport terminal after all arrival clearance formalities, and he was arrested with another associate.

“In his own recorded conversation with our undercover officer, Abba Kyari also said the following: They are greedy, seriously greedy (referring to his informants), we tried to have them accept 40% but they refused, except 50%, they know the rudiment of the deal very well, they are the ones that do the packing. From Brazil, one of the informants accompanied it to Ethiopia. You understand; one of the informants accompanied the goods to Ethiopia, one of the informants that give us information. He is the boy of the big baron.

“Addis, from Addis it will be given to those to proceed further with it, he will get their snapshots without their knowledge. Yes, he will reveal those that are conveying it further, get snapshots of theirs without their knowledge and send to us (Abba Kyaris team). “So we already know the goods, picture and the cloths they are wearing, hope you understand, we know your name, he will give us everything. So, automatically my team will just be waiting, they will just see you and arrest you.

“Responding to our officers question on whether his boys are usually stationed inside or outside the airport, Abba Kyari said, Yes, yes, some are outside while some are inside. They will just allow you to finish arrival formalities and arrest you the moment you come out.

“The above no doubt establishes who the cartel was relating with and their modus operandi. Again, this is to correct inaccuracies in some reports and assure that the Agency will not deviate from an evidence-based investigation that will spare nobody found complicit.

In another development, Imo State government has said: ‘’ Our attention has been drawn to a piece of trash trending on social media where Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State was mischievously credited to have advised the Igbo youth to stand with the embattled suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, currently being investigated by the authorities of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for alleged complicity in drug-related matters.

” The authors of the poorly-scripted report had thought that the best way to deceive their audience was to claim that Governor Uzodimma gave the advice at a media briefing in Owerri without letting the same audience to know the venue and occasion the governor spoke.

 “The source of such baseless and useless piece of nonsense is always known to us – agents of opposition politicians.

 “The authors have proven time and again that they work for the opposition politicians who think that the only way they can play politics in Imo State is to deceive members of the public with imaginary tales around Governor Uzodimma rather than devote their time to constructive criticisms about government and its programmes.

 “At a time Imo people are celebrating the giant strides Governor Uzodimma’s administration has recorded in the area of road infrastructure, medicare, security, agriculture, education, urban renewal, recovery of stolen property, et al, just two years in the saddle, the only thing that appeals to the enemies of progress of Imo State is the recourse to fake news on the embattled Abba Kyari’s matter, using the governor’s name to give semblance of credibility to their mischief.

 “Because the authors of the rubbish are simply harebrained crackpots, they think they can dabble into any issue, such as the current ordeal involving Abba Kyar, politicize it, regardless of the weighty legal implications.

 “As pedestrian as the authors of the report and their sponsors are in their reasoning, they may not have known that they have disclosed to the relevant authorities investigating Abba Kyari that they too can help them with information at their own disposal to get to the root of the matter.

 :We just hope they will not go under or shy away when they are needed by the detectives to throw more light on the matter.

“They need to be reminded that the era of writing thoughtless scripts and posting same on social media in the name of politics is gone and that nothing will be spared to fish out the perpetrators even if they choose to hibernate in their mother’s wombs.

“If they did it in the past and thought they got away with it, the story may not be the same today because the time to diagnose them of this Kyarimania sickness has come.

“Uzodimma is enjoying the overwhelming support of Imo people and the love he gets from them because of the good work he is doing in the state will embolden him the more to continue to render selfless service to them, hence no iota of distraction will make him loose track.

 

 

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