Abba Kyari Escapes Murder In Prison

Category: Nigeria News

 

Prison officials are considering moving suspended police officer Abba Kyari to the custody of the State Security Service (SSS) from the Kuje prison after he nearly got murdered by aggrieved inmates, who accused him of insincerity in bribe-for-release deals when he was in active service.

According to internal documents and officials accessed by Premium Times, the attack happened on May 4, months after Mr Kyari, who is on trial for drug-related offences, was remanded. His attackers were about 190, an official said, and they are mostly in prison for drug offences.

Mr Kyari, 47, a deputy commissioner of police, was a decorated cop and head of the elite Intelligence Response Team of the Inspector-General Police before his fall. First, he was suspended from police duties after being named last July by American investigators as an accomplice in the international fraud and money laundering scheme of Ramon Abbas, popularly called Hushpuppi.

Then, while on suspension and awaiting the outcome of an internal probe, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in February accused him of involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy. The agency released a video in which Mr Kyari appeared to be describing his use of his team to push drugs and discussing sharing of a criminal fortune.

He was charged to court in March and remanded in Kuje prison.

The Kuje attackers claimed Mr Kyari prosecuted them despite taking bribes from them, our sources said. One of the sources, a state investigator and intelligence officer, described Mr Kyari as a “dodgy criminal.”

Mr Kyari has not been convicted of any crime and has said he is innocent of the allegations for which he has been charged.

Quoting the inmates, Premium Times sources said Mr Kyari was “eliminating smaller (drug) dealers to clear the field for Afam Ukatu,” a suspected billionaire drug baron allegedly behind N3 billion Tramadol deal linked to Mr Kyari.

“Inmates claimed that upon arrest, Abba Kyari demanded bribes to kill the case, then still prosecuted them,” a Kuje prison source who accessed the testimonies of the aggrieved inmates, said.