The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency has declared suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, wanted over alleged links with an international drug cartel.
Femi Babafemi, the spokesperson for NDLEA, made the announcement on Monday during a short press conference held at its Headquarters in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
According to Babafemi, the Agency believes strongly that DCP Kyari is a member of a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline.
He maintained that Kyari needs to answer questions in an ongoing drug case in which he is the principal actor, noting that his failure to cooperate forced the hand of the Agency and that is the reason for this press briefing.
“The saga started on Friday, January 21, 2022, when DCP Kyari initiated a call to one of the NDLEA officers in Abuja at 2:12 pm. 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.
“Now, anybody who is in touch with the reality of the renewed drug war by NDLEA since January 18, 2021, would know that that was a tall order because our officers and men have rededicated themselves to the war against illicit drugs and what Kyari was asking for was not tenable, not in this new dispensation, not with the new NDLEA. We can recall that one of our officers was in the same situation in May 2021 when a drug kingpin, Ejiofor Felix Enwereaku, flew from Brazil to Nigeria to negotiate the release of a 27.95 kg shipment of cocaine intercepted at the MMIA.
“The drug lord offered a bribe of $24, 500, but our officer placed duty above pecuniary interest. We all know how the episode ended. That is the ethos of the new NDLEA. And our officer proved it again this time by reporting to the authorities.
“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 he 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,” Babefemi added.
Meanwhile, Kyari had earlier been indicted by the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FIB) in the case of fraud involving social media celebrity, Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi.
Abbas was arrested by Dubai Police in the United Arab Emirates in June 2020 and later extradited to the US for prosecution by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over criminal activities bordering on internet scams.
According to US authorities, Kyari was a conspirator with Hushpuppi in a $1.1 million deal to defraud a Qatari businessman.
Until the new development, the Police Service Commission had issued a two weeks ultimatum to the Nigeria Police to conclude investigations on the case involving the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police.
