Abba Kyari Declared Wanted By NDLEA

By Uche Mbah

In what would go down as, perhaps,  the biggest scandal of the year, suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, has been declared wanted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

In a short press conference  in Abuja on .Monday, NDLEA  Spokesman, Femi Babafemi, said the embattled DCP was declared wanted over alleged links with an international drug cartel.

“With the intelligence at our disposal, the Agency believes strongly that DCP Kyari is a member of a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline, and he needs to answer questions that crop up in an ongoing drug case in which he is the principal actor. His failure to cooperate forced the hand of the Agency and that is the reason for this press briefing,” NDLEA spokesman said.

According to the NDLEA,  “Kyari initiated a call to one of the NDLEA officers in Abuja at 2:12 pm. When the officer returned the call two minutes later, Kyari informed him he was coming to see him, to discuss an operational matter after the Juma’at service.

“He proposed a drug deal whereby he and his team are to take 15kg of the cocaine and leave 10kg for the prosecution of the suspects arrested with the illicit drug in Enugu.

“In the meantime, the purloined cocaine will be replaced with a dummy worth 15kg. He asked the NDLEA officer to persuade men of the FCT Command, to play along as NDLEA said Kyari had been invited, but  had refused to honour invitations by the NDLEA which now warranted his being declared wanted.

Kyari, the Head of the Inspector General of Police’s, IGP,  Intelligence Response Team, IRT, in which position he cracked many high profile cases, and became an instant celebrity, respected by Nigerians.

His untidy side began to unravel when  the United States of America’s FBI indicted him over alleged links with an international internet fraudster, Hushppupi in 2021.

Months after he was suspended by the Police Service Commission, and an Investigation Panel set up by the IGP, the decision of the Panel has since not been made public.

Last week, the PSC gave the IGP a two-week deadline to reinvestigate, thoroughly, the Kyari scandal and submit its findings.

His tango with the NDLEA is the climax, and may eventually destroy him.