By The suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari might have landed himself in a bigger mess as he has now been linked to drug trafficking.
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has declared the embattled ‘super cop’ wanted over allegations of his links with an international drug cartel.
Femi Babafemi, the agency’s spokesperson, made this known during a news briefing held in its Headquarters, on Monday.
The NDLEA said it took the decision after all efforts to get him honour formal invitations for his interrogation failed.
“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,” the statement read in part.
The anti-narcotic agency also disclosed how Kyari met one of its officers to propose a drug deal whereby he and his team are to take 15kg of 25kg cocaine — which will be replaced with dummy — recovered from some suspected drug traffickers, further narrating how the deal went with its officer playing along.
Having gathered enough evidence, the NDLEA said it invited the suspended police officer but he refused to show up.
It said, “NDLEA has the mandate to take custody of suspects and consignments of drugs seized by other arms of law enforcement. 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.”
Before his latest ordeal, Kyari had been indicted in a $1.1 million scam over his alleged collaboration with a self-confessed international fraudster, Hushpuppi. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the now-suspended police officer helped to jail one of the latter’s associates.
Though he had denied the allegations, the embattled cop was relieved of his appointment as the officer in charge of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) as recommended by the probe panel set up by the police authorities.
There have also been talks of possible extradition of Kyari to the United States where the fraud case is being treated.
Some days ago, the Police Service Commission gave the police two weeks to conclude its findings on the matter, directing that the investigation should be done by a different panel.
