By 
Supercorp and leader of the Intelligence Response Team under the behest of the Inspector General of Police, Mr Abba Kyari has come out yesterday, Tuesday 22nd of January 2019 to debunk the alleged claims of unfair treatment meted to the family and takeover of multi-billion naira properties of a suspected kidnapper who was killed by the police in an operation a year ago as published by Premium Times of Monday.
The publication captioned “Top police squad under fire for seizing slain suspect’s asset, pocketing millions in rent” also has it that the elite intelligence team is also alleged in a separate petition by the Nigeria Human Rights Commission, NHRC and Amnesty International of gross human rights abuses and illegal expropriation of suspected proceeds of crime.
The NHRC according to the report said in an October 2018 petition to then-Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris that the IRT, led by Abba Kyari, a then deputy police commissioner, had been illegally depleting the asset of Collins Ezenwa, a suspected kidnapper who was gunned down in January 2018.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police who took to his Facebook page stated clearly that the police had nothing to do with a claimed private account carrying names from people of the South East as reported by the Kidnapper’s wife to Premium Times and that the claims were borne out of his team’s rejection of a cut in the kidnapper’s property as bribery to close the case.
“We have Nothing to do with a Private account carrying Names Of People from the South East Flaunted by the Kidnappers Wife, In this BVN Era Bank accounts can easily be investigated and Cash movements and Owners can easily be traced and Arrested for Questioning. All lies from the wife of a kidnap Kingpin whom we refused to Negotiate With. The Family of the Kidnapper were Begging to Settle with us but we refused then they vowed to Spent money to Spoil our names as all their Efforts to transfer the case out of our office failed. “ He stated.
According to the Monday publication by Premium Times, a follow-on petition was sent to the Former Inspector General of Police, Mr Idris days before his retirement on January 15, accusing Mr Kyari and his team of victimising Gift Ezenwa, the deceased’s widow, and other members of the family, while also depleting the properties he left behind without any court order whatsoever.
The report also had it that, Damian Ugwu, a researcher with Amnesty International who worked on the case affirms that the IRT which was set up by the Inspector-General with vast jurisdiction on police activities across the country where Personnel attached to the squad are allowed to make arrests in any state within the country without recourse to the sitting state police commissioner started aiming for Mr Ezenwa’s properties immediately after they took over the case from the Imo State police command.
In his words in the publication: “Because of their unlimited powers in the police, they dubiously took over the case from Imo State command and started identifying possible assets of Mr Ezenwa shortly after he was killed,” Mr Ugwu said. “They threw his wife and infant son out of some of his properties, including his hotel, and started collecting rents from them.”
“More than a year later, they have not approached any court for an order to confiscate the properties,” Mr Ugwu said. “Our findings showed that they were just collecting rents and putting the money in private accounts for their own use.”
Similarly, Premiums Times also had it that Mrs Ezenwa who was four months pregnant when her husband was killed gave birth on June 17 2018 to a male child and was arrested less than two months later on August 11 2019. She was said to be transferred to Lagos by Mr Kyari’s team, where she was detained for two weeks, spending two nights in police custody in Enugu before being moved to Lagos.
Ms Ezenwa said in the report that Mr Kyari ordered her release without charges on the grounds that she would bring all the original titles of the properties to them, a demand she found suspicious. But even without giving the documents to Mr Kyari, the police chief ordered all identified properties confiscated.
Also in the report, De-Inglish Hotels and Resort in Enugu, estimated at N220 million, was taken over by the IRT, which had been receiving proceeds of lodging and other services to private bank accounts. Eight blocks of flats on 21, Edinburgh Road, New Layout, Enugu, which was also linked to Mr Ezenwa, is now being managed by the police squad.
Premium Times also claimed to have obtained two bank accounts which the NHRC said earnings from the hotel and flats are being paid into. Tochukwu Okeke and Ozougwu Stanislaus were the names on two Zenith Bank accounts.
In response to the above, Kyari faulted the media firm for not verifying these claims before publishing and expressed that all is set for his team to sue Premiums Times for linking the names of his team personnel to what he tagged ‘Fictitious/Unknown accounts’.
“They now went to a Small media Outfit who are not Ready to verify the Authenticity Of the Stories from the Kidnapper’s Wife who Jump bail given to her because of her Small baby and is on the Run, She is Vowing to Enjoy the proceeds of her late kidnapper Husband’s Crime as if there is no Laws in this Country. We are Suing Premium Times for linking our names to Some Fictitious/Unknown accounts carrying names of people from South East. I have never seen those accounts and they will tell the Court Why they are linking me to account I don’t know of. “He wrote.
He further affirmed that all the properties seized from the kidnap kingpin were still under the investigation of a court of competent jurisdiction and still very much intact.
In his post: “More Over all the Exhibits including 13 houses and 13 vehicles and the 100 Million Naira Cash we froze in the late Kidnap Kingpin’s Bank Account Using Court Order are Intact as Motion for the forfeiture of the properties and Money freeze in the bank account to the Federal Government are before Owerri High Court.
Kyari on behalf of IRT known for its ability to track and apprehend high-profile crime suspects like that of Chukwudimeme ‘Evans’ Onwuamadike assured that he will not relent as they are used to this type of baseless accusations when uncompromising Officers are handling cases of big and Billionaire kidnappers like this.
In his parting words: “The moment you refused to Negotiate with them, They will Sponsor lies against you in Anger. Had it been we agreed to Negotiate with the Family of the Death Kidnap Kingpin, nobody would have heard of this Case. Friends we have nothing to hide, We want Anybody or Organization to investigate this matter and See the truth. We are also Surely Going to Court against The Publisher Of this False Story trying to Spoil our names and Hard Earn Reputation. Most grateful for all your Concerns Please.”
One will recall that in 2018, the police in Imo State accused Mr Ezenwa, a former police corporal of leading a syndicate of deadly abductors. He was killed during an exchange of gunfire along Enugu-Owerri Expressway.
Mr Ezenwa was riding in a vehicle with two of his cousins when he was killed, and the police accused the trio of being kidnappers and circulated gory images of their brutal killings on the Internet.
However, Human right activists disputed the account of the police on how Mr Ezenwa was killed in its petition to Mr Idris, who left office last week.
According to Monday’s Publication by Premium Times, Mr Kyari allegedly denied the allegations and warned the media firm not to publish the complaints because Mr Ezenwa was a notorious kidnapper who had committed untold atrocities before he was killed.
It was unclear how Mr Ezenwa who was nicknamed ‘E-Money!’ hit his fortune. He resigned from the police as a corporal on N47,000 a month salary in November 2017, and travelled to Malaysia for only a month. But soon as he returned from Malaysia, he embarked on a spending spree, purchasing houses and businesses in nine figures.
There are other accounts that said Mr Ezenwa had been travelling to Malaysia since at least 2014, but kept the trips away from his wife and family members, and continued to work as a police corporal. He joined the police in 2009, resigned from the force on November 17, 2017 and was 31 years old at the time he was killed on January 27, 2018.
