Human rights lawyer Femi Falana has challenged Nigeria’s deputy police commissioner Abba Kyari to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the District Court in the United States if he is not guilty of allegations against him.
Mr Kyari had denied any wrongdoing after Peoples Gazette on Thursday broke the news of his embroiling with Nigerian Internet fraudster Ramon Abass known as Hushpuppi, in a multimillion-dollar fraud.
Court documents revealed an order to arrest and detain Mr Kyari after Mr Abbas pleaded guilty to large-scale cyber fraud in the U.S. recently. The documents also exposed how Mr Abbas bribed Mr Kyari to arrest one of his gang members following a dispute presumably over the proceeds of crime. The police officer arrested and detained the gang member.
Claiming no wrongdoing, Mr Kyari, in a statement on Facebook, narrated how Mr Abbas called him two years ago to complain about a person threatening to kill his family.
He said the suspect was released after discovering there was no threat to anyone’s life, “and they are longtime friends who have money issues between them.
“Nobody demanded a kobo from Abbas Hushpuppi,” claiming that he only introduced Mr Abbas, who paid N300,000 to his cloth vendor.
“Later, he saw some of my native clothes and caps on my social media page, and he said he likes them, and he was connected to the person selling the clothes, and he sent about N300k directly to the person’s account,” added Mr Kyari. “The native clothes and caps (five sets) were brought to our office, and He sent somebody to collect them in our office.”
Reacting to Mr Kyari’s claims, Mr Falana said, “The United States and Nigeria have an extradition treaty which covers the offences allegedly committed by CP Abba Kyari.”
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“If the police officer insists on his innocence, he may want to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the district court in the United States. Once the request is received by the federal government, the attorney general will commence extradition proceedings in the federal high court.”
Additional details in the indictment file contained how Mr Kyari left his job as a police officer and travelled to Dubai to enjoy a good time with Mr Abbas, who lived at Palazzo Versace in the Emirati commercial capital.