Abba Kyari, a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, has been designated sought by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency for alleged drug trafficking connections.
The statement was made by NDLEA spokesperson Femi Babafemi during a press briefing in Abuja on Monday.
Mr Kyari was the Commander of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) at the Nigerian Police Force’s Force Intelligence Bureau before being suspended for his ties to convicted fraudster Hushpuppi.
He is wanted by the NDLEA for his role in a cocaine trade worth 25 kg.
After all attempts to persuade Mr. Kyari to honor formal invitations for his interrogation failed, the Agency designated him wanted.
“Even before the damning findings of the 2018 National Drug Use and Health Survey, Nigeria’s drug problem was getting close to epidemic proportion. And if anything, the arrests and seizures by NDLEA in the past 12 months is an indication that the country’s drug problem was grossly underestimated before President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to strengthen the NDLEA and the subsequent launch of offensive action by the Agency to clean the society of the menace.
“Unfortunately, some law enforcement agents who should be partners in the pursuit of the President’s mandate are at the forefront of breaking the law, as they aid and abet drug trafficking in the country.
“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.
“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.”
