If any individual can assume the tirle of the biggets indirect cause of the October 2020 #EndSars protests against police brutality in Nigeria, it must be Abba Kyari, the 46-year-old Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) who was, till 2016, the Officer-in-Charge of the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command.

The notoriety of SARS under him, as well as a few recent cases of gross abuse and killings of young Nigerians, stirred the bottled-up anger expressed in the weeklong protest.

CAREER AND EDUCATION

A Kanuri by tribe, Kyari was born into the Family of Alhaji Baba Kyari, native of Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe living in Maiduguri, Borno State, on March 17, 1975.

He attended the University of Maiduguri Staff Primary School and then proceeded to the Government College, Maiduguri, where he obtained a Senior Secondary School Certificate which qualified him to study Geography at the University of Maiduguri between 1993 and 1997. Following his mandated one-year youth service, Kyari was, in the year 2000, admitted into the Nigeria Police Academy, Mudil, Kano State, from where he graduated as a Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP).

Following a one-year stay in the Song Police Division, Kyari was deployed to Numan, Adamawa State, as Divisional Crime Officer (DCO), and then Commander, 14 PMF, Yola. In Lagos, he was first a 2IC, and then in 2011 he became the OC of SARS. Kyari was shot to limelight when, as commander of a newly formed Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), he nabbed Chukwudi Onwuamadike (also known as Evans), a notorious kidnap kingpin in Nigeria.

RECOGNITION AND AWARDS

Kyari, the youngest high-ranking Nigerian police officer, was nicknamed ‘Nigeria’s Jagbawa’ for his sheet of successful covert police arrest and capture operations which earned him local and international accolades. Among his several awards are Leadership and Service excellence 2011, 2012, 2013; Star Award from CRAN 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017; Triple IGP Commendation Medal for courage 2012, 2013, 2014; Triple Lagos State Governor’s award for Gallantry; Best Anti-Crime Police Officer in West Africa from Security Watch Africa; Lagos State Commissioner of Police Commendation Award for Courage, 2011; Star Award for Outstanding Gallantry In Africa, 2018, by Security watch Africa; Africa’s Best Detective Of The Year, 2018; The best Police officer of the Decade Award; 2018 HERO of the year Award by Silverbird Group; and the Presidential Medal for Courage from President Mohammadu Buhari.

RIGHTS ABUSES AND EXTORTION

However, the allegations of human rights abuses, extortion and extrajudicial killings hanging around Kyari’s neck are about a match of the stars on his shoulder.

In October 2020, Afeez Mojeed narrated to the Lagos State Judicial Panel on Restitution for Victims of SARS Related Abuses and other Related Matters how Kyari extorted N41million from him in 2014. According to the business man, Kyari, as OIC Lagos SARS, locked him up for 14 days, all the while forcing him to sign bank cheques, before charging him to court over trumped-up charges.

In 2019, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Amnesty International, after conducting separate investigations, accused Kyari’s IRT of gross human rights abuses and illegal expropriation of suspected proceeds of crime. In a petition to Ibrahim Idris, the then Inspector General of Police, Amnesty International said the Kyari-led team had been maltreating the wife of one Ezenwa, an alleged kidnapper killed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Imo State, while depleting his assets, which included a N220million hotel in Enugu and eight apartments worth about N180million.

HUSHPUPPI CONNECTION NO LONGER A HUSHED MATTER

While Kyari seemed to have ridden on his supercop status to cushion several weighty accusations, including that of extrajudicial killing, against him in the past, a recent report by an officer of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FIB) naming him as one of six persons who conspired to fraudulently obtain over $1m from a business person, shot him back to the news. The report, released on Wednesday, detailed Kyari’s role in the crime, alongside that of Hushpuppi, a popular Nigerian Instagram sensation, and five others.

Otis Wright of the United States District Court for the Central District of California had ordered the FBI to track Kyari and a senior police officer revealed, on Thursday, that the Nigeria Police Force would probe him over his indictment.

What is left to be seen now is what will become of Nigeria’s most decorated cop. And the answer might come in just a matter of days.

NaijaDonCast:
Last week na Cubana this week na Kyari

Arrewa:
Abba kyari.... We are closely looking into your matter!!

Abba you Bleep up Big time!!! Since the the Day I Saw you at obi Cubanas mothers burial.... I knew you're already loosing it!!


A super cop that has risked his life protecting us from kidnappers, murderers & terrorists all these years& that has arrested more criminals than any other is accused of taking bribes from a yahoo boy & scammer all the way from America & we are expected to believe it? Not me!

Abba is one of the bravest, brightest and best cops in Nigeria and I will not believe these crazy allegations levelled against him or condemn him unless I see any evidence to the contrary.

He has proved himself over and over again when it comes to catching criminals and I do not believe that he is one himself. If he were he would not have such an excellent record in combating crime.

Nigerians seem to take delight in believing and assuming the worse about their best. That is part of our problem: we love and celebrate the evil but we despise, hate and seek to pull down the righteous and good.

A super cop that has risked his life protecting us from kidnappers, murderers & terrorists all these years& that has arrested more criminals than any other is accused of taking bribes from a yahoo boy & scammer all the way from America & we are expected to believe it? Not me!

Abba is one of the bravest, brightest and best cops in Nigeria and I will not believe these crazy allegations levelled against him or condemn him unless I see any evidence to the contrary.

He has proved himself over and over again when it comes to catching criminals and I do not believe that he is one himself. If he were he would not have such an excellent record in combating crime.

Nigerians seem to take delight in believing and assuming the worse about their best. That is part of our problem: we love and celebrate the evil but we despise, hate and seek to pull down the righteous and good.

The difference between our police and that of the United States is 'Before and After'

The Nigerian Police arrest you, charge you to court and remand you to prison BEFORE they start investigations but the American Police will mention your name, arrest, charge you to court and prosecute you only AFTER proper investigations have been done. This is the reason Nigerian government agents both Police and DSS always loose their cases like they just did with El-Zarzaky. Thorough investigation must have been carried out before they came out with these findings.

This will again test the WILL of the Nigerian government either to fight corruption or cover-up. Almost all the agents of government and politicians of Nigeria are not innocent of this. The United State will definitely write to Nigeria to hand over the super cop to them for investigations. If the Nigerian government refused, the US will do nothing because they cannot test the powers of our sovereignty. But come to think of it, can we afford to have a top crime burster who cannot travel to the United States? Because if he does anytime even 20 years later without clearing these allegations, he would still be arrested.

Let me quickly remind you in case you think Abba Kyari is innocent. Being a friend to Police authorities, an activist who have severally interfaced with police and a Paramount advocate of the #EndSARS, I can confidently tell you that almost no single police is free from these accusations of corruption and bribery.

The last demand of the #EndSARS was welfare for our police but up till now the government have not implemented the increase in police salary structure. They will keep being corrupt and accomplices to crime because even as steady inflation hits Nigeria, they can't afford not to take care of their families including cutting corners. If you ever think the the government funds Abba Kyari in bursting crimes, then you are not in touch with reality. If you ever think that the government funds investigations carried out by IGP-IRT across the country, you are not truthful to yourself.

Police in order to deliver good job and get promoted extort from people to prosecute people. They do several dirty job even for politicians to get enough funds to burst criminals. Some go as far as engaging in Yahoo, others conspire with criminals and even demand monies constantly for bail. They are not funded, their uniforms are not provided, vehicles for patrol are not provided, stationaries are not provided as little as bail-bonds are not printed and distributed by government to police. They look for ways to do all these by themselves but only those that are caught are thieves.

It goes to tell you that Nigeria Police can never be clean if we continue like this. If you listened to some proceedings of the just concluded Judicial Panel of Inquiry, you will see how some police carried out dirty jobs including killing innocent people and labelling them as criminals. We are in a situation where the government have told them indirectly by not funding them to 'steal but don't be caught'. Whoever is caught would be used as example but they are all guilty of bribery. Please this write-up is not to indict the police but to tell the government that whatever the police are today, the government should take responsibility of it.

Funny enough, the police is a regimented force and they cannot speak for themselves hence they find ways to do their jobs even with negative processes provide they are not caught. Non of them will come out to tell you what they face because they have sworn an oath to the secrecy of silence to their job while they eat shit. This should signal something to us... Nigeria has a long way to go.

On the much celebrated super cop, he has been alledgely caught and he need to clear his name by submitting himself for interrogations. He has worked closely with the FBI and should not be scared to give himself up for investigations. A lot of people has alleged, to have been extra-judicially murdered by IGP-IRT but they were all covered. Great extortions are allegedly carried out by IRT but the police authorities cared less. It is time to clean up our force by creating special fundings to the divisions and units but DCP Abba Kyari should answer to his case.

This should also be a point of experience to other rising cops including the young EFCC Boss Bawa to ensure he is not corrupted by politicians and fraudsters because those clapping for you will also be the ones to trend your fall in the social media. We are all guilty. The social media defence put forth by DCP Abba Kyari did not measure up but my fear also is that his replacement in crime bursting is few. My advice for him is that he takes a leave of absence to answer those weighty allegations levied against him.

Ekeeyhandsome:
The koko is this, Nigeria is a country full of scammers. Na only few percentage of ppl in naija makes their money genuinely .
Your politicians dey into scam
Your celebrities dey into scam
Your pastors dey into scam

Just know that, no salary earner spends lavishly and no business person spends morethan their profits.. Anyway,when u eventually travel out,u will understand how things works nd how both business owners and salary earners spends their money.

Nigerians seem to take delight in believing and assuming the worse about their best. That is part of our problem: we love and celebrate the evil but we despise, hate and seek to pull down the righteous and good.

As far as I am concerned there are as many crooked, bent & killer cops all over the world as there are good ones & America has its fair share of both.The only people that ought to take pleasure in reading this crap about Abba are the kidnappers and terrorists in our country.

Allegations are a dime a dozen and an indictment does not amount to a conviction: show me the evidence or keep your mouth shut forever. I urge Abba to continue the good work he has been doing and not allow himself to be distracted by his numerous detractors. This is a deep conspiracy to destroy his career and it will not work....... FFK