Abba Kyari The Crime Burster Who Bursted His Career -By Cornelius Joseph Nwadike Ph.D

It is no longer news that the fabled crime buster who dominated the scene in the past like colossus is facing multiple trials for criminal offences. And whenever I think of the DCP Abba Kyari case, it reminds me of that of a typical Nigeria that cannot manage success. It reminds me of those who fail and instead of showing remorse or retracing their steps point accusing fingers at others. Abba Kyari’s conduct during this period of his incarceration shows that instead of owning up to his failures like a gallant officer that we thought he was, Abba is blaming everybody but himself for his fall. When Abba is not blaming his colleagues for his fall, he is blaming some imaginary people for it but unknown to him, he is the architect of his own misfortune. It is alleged that he lies about his health situation, pays columnists and media activists to write much about his exploit as a super cop and also hire some crowd to stage demonstrations any time he is to appear in court but all that is no longer working because the truth about his case has been laid bare. Abba Kyari has been fighting crime and profiteering from it in so many dubious ways. In fact, it is said that he has aided crime more than he had fought crime. The evidence against him is overwhelming.

But, to say that Abba DCP Abba Kyari has not had a glorious career in the Nigerian police force is to deny the obvious. His career has been truly successful until his fall Within a short space of time, he rose from a cadet ASP to the rank of Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), one of the fastest in the history of the Nigeria Police Force. And for a long time, he was the poster boy of the force, unarguably the most decorated officer of the force, garnering both local and international awards. And whoosh! It got into his head. He could not manage his success and everything came crumbling like a pack of cards. He forgot the rules and got lost in the euphoria of success and expose himself to sucker punch. When you are in a serious and dangerous business like crime fighting you must be on guard at all times because you are a marked man; you are target. Crime, criminals will fight back. They will bait you; they will set you up. And if you are not on guard, you become a soft target.

Abba fall from grace was a combination of many factors like pride, carelessness, his crave for media attention, his lust for women, greed and insatiable quest for primitive accumulation. Clearly, his injury was self-inflicted. Call it Karma or nemesis, if you like. As noted by one public affair commentator, “As is usual of successful people, the highly decorated Nigerian police officer was enjoying the glamor and the spotlight, fraternizing with the politicians, the powers that be, the men of timber and caliber and celebrities until 2021 when the bubble burst. First, he was named in the US in a fraud case involving the Nigerian most notorious fraudster Ramon Abbas alias Huspuppi. He was indicted by a US court as a conspirator in a $1.1 million fraudulent deal with Hushpuppi after Hushpuppi confessed to the crime. Then the US instituted indictment proceedings against Kyari, following allegations of money laundry. Thereafter, he was arrested and suspended by the Nigerian Police. And in 2022, he was again arrested over allegation that he belongs to an international drugs cartel. He was arrested by the police together with four other accomplices – Sunday Ubuah, Bawa James, Simon Agrigba and John Nuhu – when the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) declared him wanted, accusing him of being a member of a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline.”

The highlights of his NDLEA case is this: he was caught on tape negotiating for drugs and the officials said that they have the recordings. And all that was happening while he was on suspension following his indictment in the Hushpuppi’s case in the United States. Abba is pleading innocence in the case but unknown to him the NDLEA had intelligence on him and has been monitoring him for a long time. The allegations against him are clearly too weighty to be ignored. There was also the case of alleged tramadol seizure and confiscated by Abba in Lagos.

Again, the embattled super cop is also facing charges of false asset declaration and perjury having been accused of acquiring properties by proxy in different location in Borno, his home state and in the FCT. Furthermore, there are other unknown and uninvestigated cases of extortion, illegal conversion of seized assets, intimidation and killing involving Abba Kyari. Some of the stories about his illegal activities are horrifying and heart-rending. Unfortunately, most of the stories were never reported in the media prompting many to assume that they were suppressed or are mere rumors generated by the criminals that Kyari smoked out while in active duty.

If all these allegations are true, it means that Abba has used his position to aid crime and enriched himself; a case of abuse of office, conspiracy, fraud, drug-trafficking and self-enrichment inter alia. Some people had attempted to compare his case to that of Jennifer Madike and Fidelis Oyakhilome, the first chairman of NDLEA but they are clearly not the same. Oyakhilome’s case is that of carelessness and culpable negligence.

In the 1980s, we had one DSP George Iyamu who was an officer of the law who used his privileged position to aid crime. He worked with the infamous Anini gang, giving them information about the police activities and movements, making the dreaded Anini look invisible and invincible. But alas! the bubble burst and he was caught. And so it seems with the super cop Abba Kyari who may have connived with the criminals elements to commit crime while in office.

To me the best thing for Abba is to allow the courts to try his case. If that had been done, he probably would have been one of those that would have benefitted from the recent presidential pardon, given his contribution to crime fighting in the past.

Cornelius Joseph Nwadike Ph.D

A consultant, a public affairs commentator

Abuja, FCT.