Panel orders NDLEA boss to produce Abba Kyari over missing persons' case

The Independent Investigation Panel on Human Rights Violations by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad and other units of the Nigerian Police Force has requested the Chairman of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. General Buba Marwa (retd.), to produce the embattled Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, before it.

The panel in a statement issued on Friday March 11, 2022 ordered that Kyari must appear before it on March 22, 2022.

Issued by the Deputy Director (Press and External Linkages), National Human Rights Commission, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, the statement quoted a representative of the Nigerian Bar Association on the panel, John Aikpokpo Martins, as making the order while deputising for the Chairman, Justice Suleiman Galadima (retd).

She stated that Kyari must appear before the panel to answer for the allegations leveled against him by a witness of the petitioner.

The said petitioner had testified before the panel that the suspended police officer had made pledge to get in touch with him regarding the missing persons, whose whereabouts remain unknown till date.

In the same vein, the panel also ordered Kyari's successor, Tunde Disu, to ensure that his predecessor is produced before the panel on the given date.

The orders were issued with regards to the three persons who were arrested and detained at the IGP-IRT detention facility, but they are now nowhere to be found.

Their names were given as Yakubu Danjuma, Ibrahim Daniel, and Choji Dung.

The statement read, “The order of the panel followed information from panel’s counsel, Halilu Adamu that Abba Kyari is in the custody of the NDLEA and Police counsel, James Idachaba told the panel that the Police can no longer produce Kyari since he is no longer in Police custody, having been suspended.”

The panel mentioned that it had on March 8, 2022, ordered the office of the Inspector-General of Police to unfailingly produce the three missing persons before it.

Prior to the panel's order, an Abuja Federal High Court had mandated the release of the aforementioned persons but the police has continued to obey the order in breach.