Prison officials are considering moving suspended police officer Abba Kyari to the custody of the Department of Security Service (DSS) from the Kuje prison, Abuja, 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, 2022 – months after 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.
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 that Kyari prosecuted them despite taking bribes from them, our sources said.
Quoting the inmates, our sources said 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.
Despite the ‘settlements’ the aggrieved inmates have continued to threaten Mr Kyari’s life, our sources said.
“Regardless of the level of protection, they vowed to get him,” a source said. “The inmates have given him an ultimatum to return all he extorted from them or be killed.”
“Relevant officials have assessed that he will be killed or badly injured if he continues to be remanded in Kuje.”
An official recommendation has therefore been made that Mr Kyari should be transferred out of Kuje to an SSS facility.
Kyari has not been convicted of any crime and has said he is innocent of the allegations for which he has been charged.
The spokesperson for the Nigerian Correction Service, Francis Enobore, denied the attack on Kyari but it was confirmed by officials with direct knowledge of it and the service’s internal documents.
Credit: PREMIUM TIMES
