Nigeria’s arm of justice is hypothetically short, this anomaly thankfully is not the standard worldwide. Again, all over the world, the symbol of justice which is often called ‘Lady Justice’ has often been depicted as a woman wearing a blindfold. The blindfold represents impartiality; the idea that justice should be applied without regard to wealth, power, or any status. Nigeria’s version of this woman possesses gleeful sights. For this reason, the big, influential, and mighty simply toss the law around without fear of any harm.
Many Nigerians were subjected to spine chilling surprise on Thursday when it became public Knowledge that ‘Hushpuppi’ whose real name is Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, currently facing prosecution in the United States of America, had accused Abba Kyari, Nigeria’s celebrated super cop, as one of the beneficiaries of the $1.1million loot received from a Qatari businessman in 2020. The news for some other Nigerians did not come as a major surprise because the Nigeria Police Force over the years has gained notoriety for corruption and sharp practices. Given how morally rotten the institution of the police is in Nigeria and the rampant crab mentality in its ranks, it was relatively easier for some other Nigerians who had long held suspicions about the Borno born police detective to peruse the indictment without questions.
To a vast majority of Nigerians, Abba Kyari was a highly celebrated ‘Super police’ man who became popular after cracking some hard nuts. An enigma of sorts. Perhaps after solving the Evans puzzle and a few other highly rated criminal gangs, it was probably good enough to earn him acclamation from his superiors, plausible publicity from the news media, and veneration from the highly gullible Nigerian public. Quite ironically, the chips are down now and interestingly no one is finding it easy to provide the ketchup. All that appears faded to many of these people who now know better.
Asides his obvious demystification, one thing this jaw dropping allegation has done to Kyari is that it has indeed raised questions about his widely publicised and accordingly celebrated successes. If Kyari can be friends with fraudsters like Hushpuppi, who lived more extravagantly than any Saudi Prince while sustaining the garrulous lifestyle by fleecing businesses and persons of hundreds of millions of dollars in wire fraud, what guarantee can one give about how genuine his intentions to rid the Nigerian society of crime and growth stunting transgressions was? Isn’t it an anomaly that the same man who earned a reputation as a ruthless annihilator of criminals began to openly cavort with people that, at the very least, he should be suspicious of; talk about a man that has been photographed with people whose source of wealth is questionable and whose conspicuous consumption should put them on his investigatory radar! Again, if he could lie about his eye-catching experiences with the Dubai based Instagram billionaire, then how sure can one be that his presumed successes are nothing but lies? How can one meddle with pigs and retain the sanctity of his ‘glorious’ robe? Was he literally the case of a green Snake in a green grass or is he truly the angel he presented himself as? This is definitely an eye opener for Nigerians, all that glitters they say is not always Gold!
Read More: FBI’s Allegation: IGP Orders Probe Of Abba Kyari
For many critical observers, the Abba Kyari myth was busted early enough. His showiness was enough to give him away. Perhaps because there was no standard art to decipher the cunning nature of questionable cops, thankfully, DCP Abba Kyari has provided enough evidence for anyone who wanted to be suspicious of his policing. Any critical mind would naturally grow suspicion of people who are emotionally attached to unwarranted self-congratulation and ostentation. People who are aggressively self-promotional, and who perpetually cannot do without inviting the public and the ‘camera’ to witness their ‘good deeds’. To begin with, policing is not show business, it is a job that should be done in the sedate quietude of the background with careful thinking caps on. While one may forgive Obi Cubana of being too showy and ‘noisy’ owing to his hospitality and club business, the same attitude should never be connected to a man who directly reports to the Inspector General of police.
The popular sentiment that; ‘empty vessels make the loudest noise’ can be borrowed here, because as crazy as it sounds, excessive showiness often betrays an innermost emptiness at best and at worst an artful concealment of untoward impulses and deeds. However, this isn’t universally true, of course because some genuinely ethical and kind people may be outwardly flashy and given to offensive displays of self-importance, but whichever way, a police officer asides from being a quick target for criminal marauders needs utmost secrecy to be at his best – the honest truth is that most people who have a compulsive need to be overly showy and self-congratulatory about a virtue or a deed often have something to hide.
It is interesting to note that while many may have dismissed previous accusations against Nigeria’s most decorated police detective as mere propaganda and ‘fake news’ from his detractors, however, this wasn’t the first time Kyari is being genuinely being accused of acting like the people he claims to be waging a war against, sometime last year, it would be recalled that Nigerian news outlet – TheCable had exclusively reported that a Lagos businessman by the name of Afeez Mojeed accused Abba Kyari of defrauding him of up to 41 million naira.
In a petition to the judicial panel set up by the Lagos State government to address abuses by SARS, Mojeed alleged that Kyari and his SARS team forcefully broke into his home in 2014, accused him of being an Internet fraudster, seized 280,000 naira from his wardrobe, another 50,000 from his car, which they took away and never returned, detained him for 14 days, and later charged him to court but never showed up or brought any witness against him, forcing the court to strike out the Internet fraud charge against him.
Mojeed also alleged that Kyari forced him to reveal the password to some of his bank cards, sign checks, and electronically transfer money to designated bank accounts, which added up to tens of millions. When Mojeed’s lawyer reached out to Kyari to resolve the matter, the petition alleged, Kyari told the lawyer that Mojeed was an Internet fraudster, and that he proposed a deal with the lawyer to help him get another 15 million naira from one of Mojeed’s bank accounts. Kyari allegedly offered the lawyer a 5-million-naira reward as compensation for his cooperation, but the lawyer declined the offer.
Quite sadly, neither the EFCC nor the ICPC even acknowledged, let alone acted on, Mojeed’s petition for a redress of what he said was gross injustice against him by Kyari. And Kyari didn’t even find it worth his while to respond to TheCable’s request to hear his own side of the story. The matter died a natural death just like many other ones before it. Nigeria is a crime scene; no amount of whitewashing or patriotism can tamper with this widely accepted piece of truism.
A quick glance at the fact laden indictment papers from the FBI showed that the positing that the Nigerian police is explicitly corrupt is certainly an understatement, to begin with, it was clearly stated that arrest warrant was issued on Abba Kyari in April by the U.S Attorney’s office in California and the FBI. Although it wasn’t made public but clear-cut investigation has revealed that the police in Nigeria received Kyari’s arrest warrant in April.
If corruption was not a norm in Nigeria, the indictment which meant a warrant was now dangling over his head for alleged collusion with a fraudster who could spend 20 years in jail, was enough grounds for the police command in Nigeria to ask Kyari to submit his badge and all police property in his possession without further delay to face investigation. However, it took social media outrage to arm twist the police IGP to order an ‘internal review’ of the allegations against Kyari, which from every indication smacks of diversionary, untenable and potential grand cover-up attempt, in a country where the corrupt and the clueless call the shots. That Kyari is even a Northerner from Nigeria’s Northeast even brightens his chances of getting State protection. Hushpupi, he probably didn’t waste time in pleading guilty to the allegations levelled against him because he realized wasting the court’s time could make matters worse for him. He has, for the first time, seen the United States justice system in action, firsthand. Meanwhile, his accomplice Kyari, on the other hand, is still dancing and teasing on social media because he hasn’t seen what the Hushed puppy has seen. His frame of reference is not beyond Nigeria, and he thinks there are Fulani people in the FBI who exploited the devilish quota system to attain such positions. He is in for a long one.
To be continued.
AFRICA DAILY NEWS, NEW YORK
