The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has said that the suspended former head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Mr. Abba Kyari, belongs to an international drug trafficking syndicate.
Spokesman for the NDLEA, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said at a press conference in Abuja that Kyari had been declared wanted for trafficking in illicit drugs.
“We have a trove of intelligence, hard facts, from chats to photos and video and a detailed transcript of the communication between him and the NDLEA officer.
“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.
“He (Kyari) then offered to pay the NDLEA team (that is the officer and the FCT commander) by selling, on their behalf, half of the remaining 10kg, thereby further reducing the original cocaine for the prosecution to just 5kg. At N7m per kilogram, the proceed from the 5kg would amount to N35m, at the exchange rate of N570 per dollar being the black market rate for the day, January 24, 2022. In effect, he would be delivering $61, 400 to the NDLEA team.
“He (Kyari) 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.
“He (Kyari) 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. And the moment was documented, part of which I will play for you at the end of this briefing.
“Having failed to honour the official invitation, NDLEA has no option but to declare DCP Abba Kyari of the Nigerian Police wanted, right from this very moment,” said Babafemi.
He said the NDLEA had invited Kyari for questioning since concluding its investigation but he was yet to respond.
Recall that a 2021 report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States of America had earlier indicted Kyari in the case of fraud involving internet scammer, Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi.
He was subsequently suspended by the police authorities.
The US authorities said Kyari was a conspirator with Hushpuppi in a $1.1 million deal to defraud a Qatari businessman.
The former head of police IRT is facing extradition to the US for prosecution in the case.
The US attorney’s office at the Central District of California had ordered the FBI to arrest Kyari but the federal Nigerian authorities have continued to shield him.
