Abba Kyari Safe, Life Not Threatened In Prison—Correctional Service

The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) on Thursday debunked reports that the Deputy Commissioner of Police was attacked by inmates in one of the custodial centres.

The said report alleged that Kyari was attacked by about 190 inmates at the Kuje prison on May 4, and has consequently been moved to an isolated cell for fear of future attack.

The report also claimed that to further protect himself, he paid N200,000 each to the inmates and there is an official recommendation to transfer him to the SSS facility for safety.

Francis Enobore, the Spokesperson of the Service described the report as false, reckless and mischievous.

He said, “It is the handiwork of some jobless cheap recognition-seeking charlatans masquerading as newsmen, lacking in intellectual capacity to interrogate what they conjure or hear before feeding the public.

“That the author is completely oblivious of where and how detention of a suspect originates speaks volume of his ineptitude and the much his story can be relied upon.

“For the record, Abba Kyari is one of the over 800 inmates in the location where he is being kept and notable individuals including ex-Governors, Ministers, Senators and other celebrities of higher social status have passed through the same facility without any threat to their lives.

“The authorities of the NCoS did not and has no course to request for the transfer of Abba Kyari or indeed, any inmate to any other detention centre outside its jurisdiction because there is no justification for such request.

“Abba Kyari is safe and sound and goes about his daily routine like any other inmate, unharmed.

“Those playing pranks with his detention are warned to desist from such unpatriotic acts as they may be asked, through formal litigation, to justify their statement.

“The Controller-General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, is determined to continue to upscale inmates’ welfare, safe and humane custody with fervour and therefore will not be distracted by inane publications”.

Kyari is being remanded at the Kuje correctional service over his complicity in a drug trafficking conspiracy that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline.

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency in an indicting footage revealed how he used loyal officers of the Intelligent Response Team, a department where he was the Head, to carry out the illicit act and cover his tracks by ‘taking care of them’.

Kyari reportedly carried out the act despite being on suspension over allegations of complicity in the $1.1 million bribe fraud perpetrated by a popular fraudster, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi.