By James Orji
Any moment from now, Abba Kyari, a Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP will know his fate on whether the Nigerian government will extradite him to the United States of America, USA to face trial over allegation that he shared in the proceeds of a $1 million fraud against a Qatari businessman by the notorious Nigerian fraudster, Ramon Abbas also known as Husspuppi.
This followed the submission, on Thursday, a report by a panel set up by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba to investigate Kyari’s involvement in the scam.
Frank Mba the Force Public Relations Officer, FPRO said in a statement on Thursday that the IGP “received the report of the NPF Special Investigation Panel (SIP) investigating the alleged indictment of the erstwhile Head of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), DCP Abba Kyari by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)”.
The report was submitted by the Chairman of the SIP, DIG Joseph Egbunike, at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, the police spokesperson said.
According to Frank the report “contained the case file of the probe, evidences and findings as well as testimonies from DCP Abba Kyari and other persons and groups linked to the matter,” adding that “the IGP assured that a careful and expeditious review of the recommendations would be undertaken by the Force Management Team and thereafter forwarded to appropriate quarters for necessary action(s)”.
A US judge had on July 28 ordered the arrest of the former Commander of IGP Intelligence Response IRT, team after a 69-page court document of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI indited him in the Abbas saga.
In the case marked 2:21-cr-00203, USA VS Abba Alhaji Kyari dated April 29, 2021, the FBI had asked a US District Court in California to order the arrest of Kyari within 10 days, a request granted by the judge.
Even though the President Joe Biden-led government, the magazine learnt, has yet to make a formal extradition request for the DCP Kyari, the IGP and the Police Service Commission, PSC had set up separate panels to investigate him after FBI investigations showed that Abbas credited the policeman’s bank account with the sum totaling over $20,600 or N8 million.
According to checks by The Source, Nigeria has an extradition agreement with the US by virtue of an extradition treaty signed between the United Kingdom, Nigeria’s colonial masters, and the US on December 22, 1931.
The treaty came into force on June 24, 1935, and was applicable to all British colonies, including Nigeria. It provides for reciprocal repatriation of criminals among the countries involved in the agreement.
But whether the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration will handover Kyari to the US, is another ball game entirely, experts say following serious pressure that has been mounted on the government and the reactions it has generated since the issue broke last month.
However, sources in government told the magazine that the outcome of the panels set up by the IGP and PSC will assist the government to take informed decision over the issue.
“Aside whatever the outcome of the panels, the matter will still have to go to court. Nigeria is an independent nation, governed by her own laws. A mere indictment by a US judge cannot be used to extradite any Nigerian citizens, notwithstanding the fact that the two countries have signed a treaty. The whole matter still has to go through the rigours of our own laws before it can be decided,” a top presidency official said on Thursday.
A top lawyer who spoke to the magazine discreetly because of the attention the issue has generated, however, said the federal government will take the decision for the extradition of Kyari as soon as “the US government makes a formal request to that effect. Such are usually done at the government-to-government levels. And considering the cooperation that the Buhari government has enjoyed from the US government, particularly in the area of weapons procurement in the fight against terrorism, I don’t think it will want to jeopardise such gains over the Abba Kyari saga.”
The IGP had on August 2, 2021 set up the investigative panel headed by Joseph Egbunike, a Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG.
