Kyari: Hunting The Hunter With His Traps

Kyari: Hunting The Hunter With His Traps

Catching a criminal requires possessing some expertise in taming criminality. To understand the mindset of the criminal, law enforcement officers are expected to be trained in the dynamics of crimes and the reasons for their perpetration. So it was with suspended DCP Abba Kyari.

Many Nigerians were unaware of the behind-the-scenes drama that led to the recent declaration of the former super cop as a wanted police officer and subsequent detention by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Against the essence of Monday February 14, a date set aside to celebrate Valentine Day, it turned out a day for the release of a video clip exposing the dark side of a police officer whose integrity had been tainted by his alleged involvement with internet fraudster, Ramon Abba, popularly known as Hushpuppi.

According to the spokesman of the NDLEA, Femi Babafemi, former boss of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT), who had been out of police duties on account of his suspension, following damning report by the United States’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), is alleged to be involved in assisting a drug cartel in Nigeria. Unveiling the alleged dark side of Kyari, supported with video clip of a sting operation carried by the drug-fighting Agency, the former sensational super cop was declared wanted by the NDLEA over his refusal to honour its invitation on Friday February 11.

“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 cropped up in an ongoing drug case in which he is the principal actor.

“Today, we are forced to declare one of such law enforcement agents wanted in the person of suspended DCP Abba Kyari, the erstwhile Commander of Intelligence Response Team (IRT) at the Force Intelligence Bureau of the Nigerian Police Force,” Babafemi told newsmen.

The formal declaration of Kyari as a wanted police officer involved with drug traffickers was unsettling in some quarters, especially in the police. Unknown to many, before the matter went public on Monday, both the IGP Usman Alkali Baba and the Chairman of the NDLEA, Brigadier-General Buba Marwa (retd), had met behind closed doors on how best to handle the matter. While there were unconfirmed reports that pressure was mounted on the Mar-led agency to treat the matter with kid gloves, the former Lagos Military Administrator proved adamant and uncompromising, insisting that no one was above the law.

Many questions are popping up, following the arrest and detention of the former super cop who before now was destined for the top. How comes that someone who was supposed to be under suspension allowed to be engaged in police duties? Was the Borno-born cop above the law or too protected to be controlled? To whom was Kyari reporting to and who approved his numerous involvements in police investigations while under suspension? Honest answers to these questions may provide illumination to why he was too powerful to be controlled.

There is no doubt that this saga, being referred to as Kyarigate by some analysts, reflects the depth of rot plaguing the police. It is understandable that even though there were hues and cries over his alleged involvement with Hushpuppi, the police, before the NDLEA’s uproar, had stood in doughty defence of their super cop. When the first report on the former IRT boss was submitted to his employers, following the overwhelming report last year by the FBI, the police against the grain of reason hurriedly suspended the report and empowered a new team to re-investigate him. Considering the far-reaching report by the FBI on the internet fraud perpetrated by Hushpuppi, it looks easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for Kyari to be absolved of the water-tight case against him.

Before now, the former IRT boss had been engaged in a ferocious but silent battle to extricate himself from being extradited to the United States over his purported involvement with Hushpuppi. Now that he has landed in the soup pot of the NDLEA, many of his accusers now say: “Kamun Allah ya fi kamun police” (God’s arrest is more effective than police arrest). For Kyari who shot his way to fame by dealing with criminals, especially from the South, the odds are stacked against him. He requires a divine intervention to escape from the dreadful wrath of the law if found wanting.

Kyari’s dilemma is not the fall of one man; it is an uninspiring commentary on the police that are expected to cleanse our country of lawbreakers and deviants running riot over our nation. That a top rogue element of the police has been caught attempting to game the system in order to give advantage to a drug cartel mirrors the desperation of a corrupt police force undermining the system for pecuniary interest.

The deep cesspit of the Kyari saga, according to informed sources, is not tied to a deliberate strategy of purging Nigeria of undesirable elements; breakdown in negotiation of those involved may have triggered the release of the video clip and turned the social media platform into a turmoil. While the incident that brought the super cop to NDLEA’s cell may foreclose another trail of a failed negotiated criminality, there are many trails that have continued to provide illicit funds to top officers of the force.

In an attempt to lend credence to the chant of ‘we are not the only ones involved,” the police have accused officers of the Marwa-led agency of collusion with drug traffickers. Without let or hindrance, the drug-fighting agency has cleared its operatives of such crime, and expressed the unwavering commitment of its operatives in dealing with criminals turning our nation into a safe haven for dealers in narcotics and other illicit drugs.

Without doubt, the coming days are set to be fraught with attempts at overturning narratives as both the Police and the Agency continue to justify their positions.  While some top police officers have embraced silence and expressed shock over the embarrassing episode, defenders of Kyari, having their nose bloodied, are incomprehensibly traumatized at how their super cop from Borno State simply tumbled down the valley of infamy. It is certain that the pro-Kyari camp won’t give up easily in the coming days. Efforts aimed at portraying Kyari as a victim of envy may soon come up. Those engaged in PR and reputation managers may be in for big business. No matter what happens, Nigerians must not be deceived into believing that there’s nothing to be worried about. Just as there is no fire without smoke, Kyari must be allowed to explain his role in the circumstances leading to that sting operation. He looks too cool, if actually he is the one, to claim being a newcomer in what he is accused of.

Nigerians must not take the Kyarigate in isolation. Addressing the virus of putrefaction weakening our security agencies should serve as an anvil of renewed resolve in fighting crimes. Those mandated with the task of tackling crimes must possess the mind of the criminal, but should not, for selfish interest, be involved in helping criminals to undermine the system. A nation with corrupt-free law officers is a country that is battle ready to extricate corruption. Nigeria crawls, not because it lacks the human and financial resources for development, the country is encumbered by massive corruption that is aided by money-loving security officers whose loyalty is not to the nation but for their pockets.

No nation develops when those delegated with the task of law enforcement are in bed with lawbreakers working against the common good. It becomes an unimaginable catastrophe when crime-fighting operatives are involved in perpetrating and perpetuating crimes with the sole goal of compromising the system and giving reprobates and outlaws a head start.

Detained DCP Kyari, with his co-travellers, has become a   metaphor of gloom for a nation involved in confronting multifarious challenges militating against its march to greatness. Extricating what Kyari was alleged to have done remains the singular task any government must do to salvage a nation from the valley of skullduggery and rot that has placed Nigeria in the frontline list of most corrupt nations.