Hushpuppi: Abba Kyari deletes statement denying links

The celebrated police officer was indicted in the United States in a conspiracy to fraudulently obtain and launder money in partnership with the fraudster who has pleaded guilty to fraud resulting in millions of dollars in losses.

The 46-year-old had allegedly granted Hushpuppi's request to arrest a co-conspirator in Nigeria to clear the path for the fraudster to continue defrauding an unidentified Qatari businessperson.

As details of the link between the two trickled to the Nigerian media in bits on Thursday, July 29, 2021, the police officer denied the allegation, claiming that he was tricked into arresting the co-conspirator over allegations he threatened Hushpuppi's family.

Kyari also revealed that the suspect was immediately released on bail, but the relationship between the two didn't end there.

He said Hushpuppi had admired native clothes and caps he saw on his social media page and requested an arrangement for something similar to be made for him for N300,000.

The police officer acted as middleman between the fraudster and the cloth merchant.

Additional details that emerged after his statement heavily contradicted his claims, with cellphone records extracted from Hushpuppi's phone showing the two had an extensive relationship.

Kyari has now deleted the statement from his Facebook account, as observed on Wednesday, August 4.

Before he deleted the post, the police officer edited it to explain why his alleged partner sent him receipts for two bank transactions totalling $20,600 (over N8 million) in May 2020.

The payments had been speculated to have been a bribe paid to his team, but he said in the post that it was sent as part of a complaint Hushpuppi made about someone owing his friend money.

He said the fraudster requested that the Police help his friend recover the money from the debtor and sent the receipts as proof.

"All these can be verified from the Hushpuppi since he is still in custody. And it can be verified from the person who collected the 8 million naira from Hushpuppi's friend whom they complained about is alive and is in Nigeria," he said in the edited post.

The post had garnered tens of thousands of reactions, both in his favour and against, and he did not explain why he eventually deleted it.

Last week's revelations led to Kyari's suspension amid internal investigations to be conducted by the Police Service Commission, and calls for him to be extradited to the U.S.

He has also been replaced as the Head of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) by DCP Tunji Disu.

Kyari's scandalous link to Hushpuppi

The link between the two was made public following the unsealing of an indictment involving them and four others who scammed a Qatari businessperson of $1.1 million.

Court documents alleged that Hushpuppi arranged for Kyari to have his co-conspirator, Kelly Chibuzo Vincent, arrested following a disagreement over sharing of proceeds of the scam.

Vincent had contacted the victim to divert the loot to himself, prompting Hushpuppi to threaten him with repercussions which later came in the form of police intervention.

According to the affidavit, Kyari carried out the request and sent Hushpuppi photographs of a detained Vincent, as well as account details to receive his monetary reward.

A portion of the extracted cellphone records showed Hushpuppi explicitly told Kyari that Vincent sabotaged a job he was running, and asked that his partner be given 'serious beating of his life'.

"Please sir I want to spend money to send this boy to jail, let him go for a very long time," he texted Kyari after Vincent was arrested on January 20.

"Let me know how I can send money to the team sir. Let them deal with him like armed robber," he said in another text message.

Kyari alerted Hushpuppi a month later that Vincent had fallen ill in custody, suffering from fever and rashes he got from cellmates.

Hushpuppi later told the officer to release the detainee on February 25, but without his electronic devices, a request Kyari accepted.

The records also showed the police officer provided the account information for a bank account at Zenith Bank, an account not registered in his name.

Hushpuppi in May 2020 sent the police officer receipts for two bank transactions totalling $20,600 (over N8 million) sent to a Nigerian bank account, payments speculated to have been a bribe paid to his team.

The FBI said Kyari's knowing involvement in the scheme allowed Hushpuppi and others to continue defrauding the victim undetected.

The 46-year-old has in the past faced serious allegations of misconduct, but faced no serious investigations.

Other co-conspirators indicted are Abdulrahman Juma, Rukayat Motunrayo Fashola, and Bolatito Tawakalitu Agbabiaka.