Police Counsel Tells Abuja Panel Abba Kyari’s Detention Stalling Investigation

The Independent Investigative Panel on Human Rights Violation sitting in Abuja has been told that the Nigeria Police Force could not investigate a petition against it because the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, who was accused in the petition, was in detention.

But the panel told the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba, that the police is an institution and its operations must not be personalized.

This was disclosed in a statement published (on Twitter) by the National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday from a petition on alleged unlawful arrest and detention, torture, cruel and inhuman, and degrading treatment brought against Kyari by the families of Yakubu Danjuma, Ibrahim Daniel, and Choji Dung.

The families alleged that Kyari, who at the time, was heading the Inspector General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team, was aware of the disappearance of Danjuma, Daniel and Dung.

When the matter was heard, the police DCP James ldachaba told the panel that due to Kyari’s detention by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, police authorities cannot “extract information from him” regarding the petitions.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Panel, Justice Sulieman Galadima, represented by Dr. Garba Tetengi SAN told the police counsel not to “personalize the issue” but that the police should check the IRT records and stop being on the defensive.

“If Abba Kyari is not there, are they (the victims) not in police custody?

“Police is an institution which we all know, it is the umbrella organization of all the officers and units working within the institution. Abba Kyari’s absence should not cripple investigations, meaning the police should be able to provide necessary information any time the need arises whether an officer is on duty or not.

“You are the IGP we know as far as the panel is concerned, “Tetengi said.

But counsel to the complainants, S. I Ugo, urged the panel to compel the police to produce the 3 persons in their custody who they claim are being detained at Area 10 police station.

Recall that the panel had on March 11, ordered the chairman of the NDLEA to produce DCP Abba Kyari before the panel on the 22 of March 2022, but the directive was not complied with.

NHRC wrote: “However, in response to that request, an administrative letter was written to the chairman of the panel by Abdullahi Haruna SAN, the counsel to Abba Kyari, requesting that all petitions be made available to them to enable them to study it and respond appropriately. Meanwhile, they are requesting a period of 2 months to be able to respond adequately. The panel has obliged them one week, the matter has been adjourned to the 30 of March 2022.”

THE WHISTLER reports that Kyari is charged with drug trafficking charges (about 17.55 kilogrammes of the cocaine) before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

He has also filed a fundamental human right application against the NDLEA while another extradition application against him is before a court division in Abuja.

The extradition moves is based on the request of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation which had indicted Kyari in a multimillion-dollar international cyber fraud case involving Hushpuppi.