NDLEA says charges against Abba Kyari not meant to stop his extradition

Contrary to speculations on social media, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) says it did not file charges against the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Abba Kyari to scuttle his extradition to the United States.

On Monday, February 14, 2022, Kyari was arrested hours after he was declared wanted by the NDLEA over alleged drug trafficking.

Prior to his arrest, the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States of America had in 2021, indicted Kyari in a fraud scheme involving an Instagram celebrity, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi and four others.

But following his arrest in February over drug trafficking, many Nigerians on social media opined that Kyari’s arrest was a ploy to stop his extradition to the United States to answer questions on allegations of wire fraud, money laundering, and identity theft.

Reacting to the speculations about Kyari’s arrest, the agency’s spokesman Femi Babafemi in a Twitter post said the NDLEA charges against the embattled police officer were not meant to scuttle his extradition.

“I would love to state that the NDLEA did not file charges against these individuals just yesterday. The charges were filed against them since February 28, 2022. The matter has been assigned to a judge and the suspects are due for arraignment in court on Monday, March 7, before Court 8 of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

“This is to correct the insinuation that probably the NDLEA rushed to court to go and file charges after extradition charges were filed against one of the key suspects.

“In our case, we have charged seven persons, not just an individual alone. This is to correct the impression so that people would not keep reading unnecessary meaning into certain actions by the agency,” he said.

Babafemi also explained the reason Kyari has not been paraded, saying it is not the custom of NDLEA to parade suspects like other law enforcement agencies do.

He said, “We do not parade suspects. We have never paraded any suspects. That is the truth. I have never brought any suspects before newsmen. What we do most times is that when we issue a statement on our activities, we select some pictures of the exhibits, sometimes with the suspects there, just to show the public because we have a very cynical society that even with pictures, still a number of people would say it is not possible.

“So, you sometimes need pictures or videos to support the statement you are issuing out so that people can actually see and believe that. Beyond that some of these things also serve as deterrent to would-be offenders or those who are already in such line of criminality so that they can see that one day they can also be caught.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the US authorities’ request for Kyari’s extradition.

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami made this known recently in a TV interview.

Malami in the affidavit filed in support of the extradition application said he was satisfied that the offence for which Kyari’s extradition was sought is neither political nor trivial.