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A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, believes Nigerian police authorities are treating Abba Kyari’s case with levity, arguing that the suspended officer may soon be reabsorbed into the force.
The handling of Kyari’s extradition request by the US, he said, points to the fact that the case might be swept under the carpet despite a fresh indictment linking the officer with an international drug cartel.
“For the event that that happened on Monday through the NDLEA, I am just sure that one day we will just wake up and see that Mr Kyari would have been reabsorbed into the Nigerian Police Force,” the legal practitioner said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
“With all due respect, I think that was what Mr. IGP was working towards because if you look at the events, it would seem that the super cop was in the good books of those in power.”
Mobilisation Capacity?
Adegboruwa’s comment came two days after Kyari was declared wanted by the NDLEA for leading a drug cartel and later arrested. The fresh case with the anti-drug agency is the latest in the cases against the embattled officer.
Late last year, Instagram celebrity, Ramon Abbas better known as Hushpuppi, had accused Kyari of being a beneficiary of an international $1.1million fraud case. He told a US court that the police officer benefited from the crime proceeds and claimed that Kyari also arrested one of his Nigerian accomplices when they had a disagreement.
Kyari denied the claims and was subsequently suspended by the Nigerian police authorities after which an investigation was launched as the US also requested his extradition.
Despite his suspension, multiple reports claim that the former Head of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) was still calling the shots in the security agency; a development Adegboruwa said further lays credence to the fact that Kyari has strong links in the police.
“If you are suspended effectively from an organisation and someone else called to replace you [in Kyari’s case, Tunde Disu], how do you have the capacity to still mobilise serving officers of the same unit; mobilise them to go as far as Enugu while on suspension?” he asked during the breakfast show.
He blamed systemic mistakes for such lapses, warning that the development could dampen the morale of serving police officers.
“We need to be careful in order not to demoralise other officers who are still working in other agencies and are doing their best patriotically to nip crime in the bud,” Adegboruwa added.
