NDLEA declares Abba Kyari wanted over 25kg Cocaine deal

National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has declared suspended deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Abba Kyari wanted over 25kilograms of illicit drugs.

Director, Media and Advocacy, NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi said this at a press briefing on Monday in Abuja.

The NDLEA said investigation has revealed that Kyari, the erstwhile Commander of Intelligence Response Team (IRT) at the Force Intelligence Bureau of the Nigeria Police Force, was a member of drug syndicate which operated across the globe.

The anti-drug agency explained that the declaration of Kyari as wanted had become necessary as the policeman had failed ‘to honour the official invitation’ extended to him by the NDLEA, ‘right from this very moment.’

The NDLEA said it cannot continue to keep other suspects in the case indefinitely while the principal suspect fails to honour official invitation, as it explained that relevant channels of communication were duly followed in the demand for Kyari without any result.

The embattled Kyari is already a subject prosecution or extradition between Nigeria and authorities in the United States over his indictment in the cybercrimes conviction of an internet fraudster, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas.

Only last week, Police Service Commission (PSC) concluded its 14th Plenary Meeting, in Abuja, with a decision to defer its position on the case involving the suspended Commander of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari.

The Standing Committee on Police Discipline and Appeals of the PSC had earlier directed the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba to carry out a more thorough investigation on the matter and submit its report within two weeks in line with the advice by the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) that all loopholes in the matter be tightened.

The PSC Meeting also considered 20 pending disciplinary matters and five appeals as well as petitions from the Inspector General of Police and aggrieved serving and ex-Police Officers.

On the Kyari case, the PSC is also insisting that a new panel be set up to conduct a fresh investigation into the matter.

A statement issued by the commission, Friday, signed by its Head of Press and Public Relations, Ikechukwu Ani, said the commission took the far-reaching decisions at its 14th Plenary Meeting, which held last Thursday, February 10^th, in Abuja, chaired by Alhaji Musiliu Smith, a retired Inspector General of Police and Chairman of the Commission.

The decision of the Commission comes two weeks after it rejected the report of the panel set up by the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali to investigate the alleged connection between Abba Kyari and Hushpuppi for lacking depth.

“The Commission also directed that further necessary investigation should take half the time it took the Police to conduct the original investigation and that the investigation should be carried out by a different panel,” the statement said.

It would be recalled that Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Abubakar Malami, last Monday, disclosed that his office has established reasonable grounds to either prosecute the embattled Kyari or extradite him to the United States to face trial.

Speaking while featuring on a Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme, Monday, Malami, whose office was forwarded the report of police investigations on Abba Kyari, confirmed that there ‘were reasonable grounds’ to proceed against Kyari by either putting him on or extraditing him to the U.S. where charges are pending against him.

“As far as I am concerned, the parties are discussing, the parties are collaborating and there are exchanges of corre­spondence from the perspec­tive of investigation, from the perspective of extradition and associated things,” he said.

On whether the police report found Kyari guilty, Malami said: “You can’t find someone guilty, but perhaps, reasonable grounds for suspicion can be established which will translate into prosecution. “That is why we are talking of reasonable grounds for suspicion. Rea­sonable grounds for suspicion have been established and that will eventually translate to the possibility of prosecu­tion and eventual conviction if at the end of the day one is adjudged guilty by the court of law.

“It is an issue that has international and national dimensions. Actions have been taken, it is a work-in-process locally and internationally and we are doing whatever it takes to ensure justice is done within the context of the law regardless of the personalities that are involved.

“When criminality is involved, Nigeria and U.S. naturally work together when there are elements of the of­fences that have taken place in the diverse jurisdictions.

Last July, the IGP, Usman Alkali Baba, had ordered a review of the allegations leveled against embattled Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, with the report also indicting the senior police officer, but with the Police Chief only recommended reprimand in the form of demotion for the embattled Kyari.

However, the Police Service Commission (PSC) insisted on outright dismissal for Kyari over multimillion-dollar fraud. The PSC panelists which reviewed the IGP recommendations while acknowledging Kyari’s strides when he was in active service, said his infractions as to Hushpuppi’s criminal activities were too weighty to be forgiven, as they posited that if not appropriately and firmly decided, could leave an enduring blight on the country’s law enforcement.

“Allowing somebody who has embarrassed the country to keep a high-ranking position in the police could further compound our problems as a nation,” a top official said, adding; “This position has been clearly conveyed to the inspector-general.”

The position of panelists at PSC led to the return of Inspector-General Alkali Baba Usman’s report last week. The police chief was given two weeks to come up with a better report or the PSC would be forced to act.

“The IGP recommended demotion of Abba Kyari from DCP [deputy police commissioner] to ACP [assistant police commissioner] and this led to the anger of the PSC,” another source confirmed.

Kyari is alleged to have received huge sums of money from a  $1.1million loot said to be bribes paid by suspected internet fraudster, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas (alias Hushpuppi) who is presently in the United States facing trial for offences bordering on money laundering and cybercrimes.

Kyari is also the subject of a United States Court warrant of arrest.

Judge Otis Wright of the United States District Court for the Central District of California ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to track down Kyari and produce him in the United States for his role in a multi-million dollar fraud perpetrated by Ramon ‘Hushpuppi’ Abbas, a notorious Nigerian fraudster.

Abbas was arrested in Dubai in June, 2021 and he pleaded guilty to fraud in the U.S. The FBI said Messrs Abbas and Kyari have been friends and were both involved in a conspiracy to launder money.

Kyari was also indicted of receiving bribes from Abbas to arrest a member of the syndicate in Nigeria.

U.S prosecutors first sought a court warrant to arrest Kyari on February 12, 2021, according to court documents. Another warrant was requested on April 29, 2021.

Judge Wright’s permission for the FBI to arrest Kyari and hold him in U.S. custody was unsealed on July 26, 2021.

The full statement by the NDLEA on declaration of Kyari as wanted:

“There is no better way to start this press briefing than to remind us about the enormity of the drug problem Nigeria has on its hand and the imperative of all well-meaning Nigerians to play a positive role in curbing the illicit drug menace.

“Even before the damning findings of the 2018 National Drug Use and Health Survey, Nigeria’s drug problem was getting close to epidemic proportion. And if anything, the arrests and seizures by NDLEA in the past 12 months is an indication that the country’s drug problem was grossly underestimated before President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to strengthen the NDLEA and the subsequent launch of offensive action by the Agency to clean the society of the menace.

“And in just 12 months, even the most cynical of Nigerians now agree that the country is really in a drug quagmire and therefore appreciates the relentless efforts of NDLEA operatives.

“Unfortunately, some law enforcement agents who should be partners in the pursuit of the President’s mandate are at the forefront of breaking the law, as they aid and abet drug trafficking in the country.

“Today, we are forced to declare one of such law enforcement agents wanted in the person of suspended DCP Abba Kyari, the erstwhile Commander of Intelligence Response Team (IRT) at the Force Intelligence Bureau of the Nigerian Police Force.

“With the intelligence at our disposal, the Agency believes strongly that DCP Kyari is a member of a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline, and he needs to answer questions that crop up in an ongoing drug case in which he is the principal actor. His failure to cooperate forced the hand of the Agency and that is the reason for this press briefing.

“When the officer returned the call two minutes later, Kyari informed him he was coming to see him, to discuss an operational matter after the Juma’at service.

“He appeared at the agreed venue of the meeting with the officer and went straight to the crux of the matter. This was it: His team had intercepted and arrested some traffickers that came into the country from Ethiopia with, according to him, 25kg of cocaine. He proposed a drug deal whereby he and his team are to take 15kg of the cocaine and leave 10kg for the prosecution of the suspects arrested with the illicit drug in Enugu. In the meantime, the purloined cocaine will be replaced with a dummy worth 15kg. He asked the NDLEA officer to persuade men of the FCT Command, to play along as well.

“By 11: 05 am on Monday, January 24, after the Agency gave the officer the green light to play along, he and Kyari began a WhatsApp call for the rest of the day. The officer conveyed “their” willingness to play the game.

“At this point, Kyari disclosed that the 15kg (already taken out) was shared between the informants that provided information for the seizure and himself and his men of the IRT of the Nigerian Police. According to him, the informants were given 7kg while his team took 8kg which was already sold.

“He then offered to pay the NDLEA team (that is the officer and the FCT commander) by selling, on their behalf, half of the remaining 10kg, thereby further reducing the original cocaine for the prosecution to just 5kg. At N7m per kilogram, the proceed from the 5kg would amount to N35m, at the exchange rate of N570 per dollar being the black market rate for the day, January 24, 2022. In effect, he would be delivering $61, 400 to the NDLEA team. He put pressure on our officer to wrap up the arrangement with the commander of the FCT Command to take custody of the drug and suspects from his men who were on ground in Abuja. At the time, he was speaking from Lagos, where he allegedly travelled for private business.

“The next day January 25, Kyari offered to send his younger brother to deliver the payment while his men deliver the suspects, but our officer turned down the suggestion, insisting he would rather deal with him in person and was therefore prepared to wait for him to return from Lagos.

“And by 5: 23 pm, Kyari was in Abuja and met with the officer at the same rendezvous where they had the first meeting. In their discussion, he disclosed how his team received the information from a double-crosser who betrayed the traffickers to him, showing a sordid connection between law enforcement agents and the drug underworld; he narrated how acting on the tip-off, his team departed Abuja to Enugu and arrested the traffickers, removed part of the consignment on his instruction and replaced same with dummies. He also indicated how to identify the remnant of the original cocaine that would be delivered to NDLEA, five original packages marked with red dots. The reason for this was to avoid the dummies being subjected to test. He forwarded a picture of the marked original cocaine package. According to the plan, once the 5kg cocaine has been tested in the presence of the suspects and confirmed positive, there would be no need to test the remaining ones, being dummies.

“He also brought with him the money from the sale of the 5kg share of the NDLEA team, a total of $61, 400. Our officer, however, preferred to take the money inside his car. Well, the car was wired with sound and video recorders.”

“NDLEA has the mandate to take custody of suspects and consignments of drugs seized by other arms of law enforcement,” Mr Babafemi said. “And there is a standard protocol for such transfer. This we duly followed. The suspects and drugs were delivered to us on February 8 but the last part of the process, yet to be completed, is the debriefing of Kyari.

“DCP Abba Kyari was invited by NDLEA for debriefing on Thursday February 10 through two main channels because there is a whole lot of questions begging for answers. The invitation was legitimate and formal according to our protocol. But up till the close of office hours on Friday, February 11, he refused to respond. Up till this moment, he hasn’t responded. We are a law-abiding agency of government. We follow due process. In that vein, we will not detain suspects beyond the stipulated period according to the law before we charge them to court. And Kyari must be debriefed before the suspects are arraigned in court.

“Having failed to honour the official invitation, NDLEA has no option but to declare DCP Abba Kyari of the Nigerian Police WANTED, right from this very moment.

The NDLEA said that it’s not unaware of threats to the lives of its officers involved in the case, assuring that it would do everything to protect its officers.

“We are not unaware of threats to the lives of NDLEA officers involved in this investigation, even as we continue to do our best to protect our officers and men in the line of duty.

“We are making this strong statement to those contemplating harmful action against NDLEA officers. They would only succeed in compounding their problems in the event of the murder of or harm to officers and men of NDLEA.”