One topic that has dominated public discourse since last Wednesday is the alleged indictment of one of Nigeria’s celebrity cops, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, in the cybercrime case against socialite, Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi.
When the news broke that Hushpuppi, who was arrested in the UAE in 2020, alongside 11 of his associates on allegations bordering on scamming, hacking, bank fraud, impersonation, and identity theft, involving 1.9 million people and the sum of N168 billion and was later extradited to the US and detained at the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago, had pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge, for which he could get up to 20 years in jail if found guilty, no one expected what came next but the rest as they say, is history.
Kyari, according to US court documents, allegedly accepted a bribe from Hushpuppi, to arrest and jail a business associate, Chibuzor Vincent, with whom he had a disagreement over how to share $1.1 million proceeds of a fraudulent deal involving some Qatari businessmen.
Ever since the news broke, there have been varied opinions by Nigerians on the issue.
Some of these opinions have brought to the fore the need for us to emphasise building of strong institutions over strong men.
There are those who are of the view that Kyari should be extradited to the US to face the charges, in honouring the extradition treaty between the two countries. Nigeria signed an Extradition Treaty with the United States on December 22, 1931, which entered into force on June 24, 1935 and since then, some Nigerians have been extradited for alleged offences ranging from drug, advance fee fraud, and terrorism related offenses.
In 2013, a Nigerian court ordered the extradition of one Lawal Olaniyi Babafemi on the request of the US Embassy on a federal indictment charging him for providing support to al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula by recruiting members to train in Yemen.
In 2019, Emmanuel Ekhator, was arrested by the Economic and Financial crimes Commission (EFCC) and handed over to the US marshals in New York on allegations of defrauding lawyers and law firms of over $31 million. In the same year, one Adedeji Adeniran, accused of being the leader of a criminal group that committed a large bank fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud conspiracy involving $4.1 million and 42 victim financial institutions was extradited to the Northern District of Florida.
There is also the pending extradition case of Buruji Kashamu, wanted in the US for drug-related charges.
There are also those who believe that Kyari, being the best thing that has happened to the police force since its creation, should not be allowed to be rubbished by foreign influences. Even though Nigeria is suffocating under the stranglehold of criminals, kidnappers and bandits, those who belong to this school of thought are convinced that things would have probably been worse if Kyari wasn’t in the picture. These are the builders of strong men. One of those of the view that because Kyari is such a prolific criminal catcher we should not believe his indictment by the FBI is former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode. In defense of Kyari, he said: “a super cop that has risked his life protecting us from kidnappers, murderers and terrorists all these years & that has arrested more criminals than any other is accused of taking bribes from a yahoo boy & scammer all the way from America & we are expected to believe it? Not me!”
For many like Fani-Kayode, the allegations against Kyari are not to be believed simply because he has been stellar in his performance as a cop.
Then there are those who are of the view that the matter will not see the light of the day because of the part of the country the accused comes from. One social media user posted on Facebook: “Imagine for a minute that Abba Kyari is a Southerner.” That is what Nigeria has been reduced to.
Be that as it may, the way I see it, this is not one of those cases of not appreciating what we have or a prophet having no honour among his own people, neither is it a pull him down syndrome.
While Kyari, like every other accused person is innocent until proven guilty by a court of law, no matter the weight of the allegation against them, this is not the first time he will be accused of involvement in acts unbecoming of a police officer of his training and standing.
Kyari, who until his recent removal, headed the inspector-general of the police intelligence response team (IGP-IRT), was in 2018 accused by Amnesty International and the NHRC of illegally depleting the assets of a suspected criminal, one Collins Ezenwa, after his team shot the man dead. Ezenwa’s wife alleged that Kyari and his team withdrew money from her late husband’s account and also took away millions from his hotels.
In the wake of the #EndSARS protests in October 2020, Lagos-based businessman, Afeez Mojeed, accused Kyari of extorting N41 million from him in 2014 when he (Kyari) was the head of the Lagos Unit of now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Kyari has since denied all the allegations. Even in the instant case, he already issued a statement on his Facebook page detailing how he only linked HushPuppi to his fashion designer for some traditional wears and that even though the money for the service wasn’t routed through him, the finished goods were delivered to him for onward transmission to the alleged internet fraudster. He is optimistic that he will be vindicated.
Just about a fortnight ago, the social media was awash with condemnations of Kyari for attending the funeral of a socialite’s mother and witnessing the lavish display and debasing of the naira and hobnobbing with those some of the commentators were convinced, had questionable wealth, going by the reckless displays they exhibited.
While I agree with those who say no country is immune to bad police officers, including the US, it is not enough for policemen in our country not to live above board. Positions come with responsibility, which includes denying yourself dalliances with people who you would ordinarily associate with.
The matter at hand now is for Kyari to clear himself of the allegations against him.
There is no longer room under the carpet for any matter to be swept and this is one matter that will create a huge bump if forced under the carpet.
The police has already set up an internal panel of investigation which must do its job diligently, without fear or favour, to ascertain the culpability or otherwise of the accused.
If found guilty of the allegations at the end of the investigation, due process must be followed to either extradite Kyari or try him in Nigeria, in line with the relevant articles of the Extradition Treaty and not allowed to go the way of the many pending extradition requests which made the State Department to say in a 2009 report that Nigeria’s extradition practices and procedures are an obstacle to anti-crime efforts.
