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As the OC SARS in Lagos back then, he was reportedly dreaded in criminal circles as he had all the resources to set about his duties in Nigeria’s most populous city. When the Abuja-Kaduna rail line was attacked some years back, the famed ‘super cop’ led some members of his strike team inside the forest and made a media show of that ineffectual expedition. Abba Kyari became that cop who gets called anytime a high profile crime comes into the limelight. When a group of thieves sacked a bank in Offa, Kwara state on April 5 2018, killing many and carting away millions of Naira; Kyari the ‘super cop’ announced a bounty to provide information about the robbers. The case eventually turned into one where the suspects alleged that top police contacts supplied the weapons they used and also tortured them into falsely implicating the Ilorin politician, Bukola Saraki. Even before the contentious ex Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, retired, Abba Kyari has become the leader of the IG’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT). They were known to be fierce and effective in any mission the IG dispatches them to crack. Initial suspicion of Abba Kyari’s high handedness soon began to filter into public glare when he started exploiting families of suspected criminals and using his position to enrich himself. From appearing in pictures with celebrities to choice cars posted on his brother’s Instagram page, many knew it was no longer his policeman pay that was funding that luxury. There were allegations of people suddenly going missing, their bank accounts being drained by SARS operatives of Abba Kyari’s ilk, and killed off at ‘SARS Abattoirs’ nationwide.
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More concrete evidence of Abba Kyari’s atrocities came into the limelight at the Investigative Panel on #EndSARS set up in Lagos after the nationwide protests against police brutality in 2020. A widower alleged that Abba Kyari and his team killed her husband, seized and depleted her husband’s assets some years ago. Other testimonies of the same nature, corroborating this allegation, continued to file in. Yet, Abba Kyari refused to appear before the panel to defend his name. And so it happened that Nigerians who were aware of the “super cop’s” atrocities were not surprised when the FBI fingered him as being complicit in the scam ring of Abbas Ramoni (a.k.a Hushpuppi). The FBI did not stop there; they also issued a warrant for his arrest for fraudulent crimes and are only waiting for the Nigeria Police Force to hand him over. While Abbas Kyari quickly released a denial of the allegations on Facebook on Thursday, the IG has recommended the immediate suspension of the ‘super cop’ – a request which the Police Service Commission quickly approved. Now that one of the leaders of the police crimes which Nigerians protested against during #EndSARS has been indicted by a U.S district court, perhaps other Nigerians and the government heads which painted the police without blemish might see evidence that the ranks are tainted from top to bottom. As things stand, it is only a matter of time until Abba Kyari points out all the others who were accomplices or beneficiaries of their racket. And when this is all done, Abba Kyari and his band of one time heroes will fall like dominoes. Featured Image Source: Vanguard News
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