By Ajuma Edwina Ameh
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has declared the suspended head of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), DCP Abba Kyari, wanted over alleged drug trafficking.
According to NDLEA, the investigation has revealed that Kyari is a member of a Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline. This was disclosed by the spokesperson of the agency, Femi Babafemi, on Monday in Abuja.
Persecondnews recalls that Kyari is also facing charges by a US court as a conspirator in a $1.1 million fraud deal involving Instagram celebrity, Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi.
The agency said they took the decision of declaring the suspended police officer wanted after all efforts to get him to honor formal invitations for his interrogation failed.
The embattled police officer was accused of taking out 15kg from 25kg of cocaine after him and his team intercepted some traffickers that came into the country from Ethiopia. He is also being accused of offering to give an NDLEA officer a cut from sale of the cocaine.
NDLEA further bemoaned a situation where those who are supposed to support current efforts to stem the tide of illicit drug trafficking and abuse are also neck-deep in the menace.
He said: “The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has declared the suspended Commander of Intelligence Response Team (IRT) at the Force Intelligence Bureau of the Nigerian Police Force, DCP Abba Kyari, wanted over his involvement in a 25kilograms Cocaine deal.
“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 Presidents 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.”
The agency further provided a clue on some of its findings in the course of investigating the drug deal.
“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 Jumaat 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 a.m 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, half of the remaining 10kg, thereby further reducing the original cocaine for the prosecution to just 5kg, at N7m per kilogram, which would amount to N35m.
“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,” the NDLEA spokesman further explained.
In their discussion, Kyari was alleged to have 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.
The suspended DCP also 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 the 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.
According to Kyari, 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,” Babafemi added.
While explaining that relevant channels of communication were duly followed in the demand for Kyari without any result, the Agency said it cannot continue to keep other suspects in the case indefinitely while the principal suspect fails to honor official invitation.
“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 has not responded.
“We are a law-abiding agency of the 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.”
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