Suspended Police Officer, Abba Kyari, was almost killed in the Kuje prison after he was reportedly attacked by over 100 inmates he had prosecuted in the past.
According to a report by PREMIUM TIMES, there are ongoing plans to move Kyari to the custody of the State Security Service after this happened.
The attack happened on May 4, months after Mr Kyari, who is on trial for drug-related offences, was remanded. His attackers were about 190, an official said, and they are mostly in prison for drug offences, the report stated.
The Kuje attackers claimed Mr Kyari prosecuted them despite taking bribes from them, sources told the newspaper. One of the sources, a state investigator and intelligence officer, described Mr Kyari as a “dodgy criminal.”
Mr Kyari has not been convicted of any crime and has said he is innocent of the allegations for which he has been charged.
Quoting the inmates, the report said Mr Kyari was “eliminating smaller (drug) dealers to clear the field for Afam Ukatu,” a suspected billionaire drug baron allegedly behind N3 billion Tramadol deal linked to Mr Kyari.
“Inmates claimed that upon arrest, Abba Kyari demanded bribes to kill the case, then still prosecuted them,” a Kuje prison source who accessed the testimonies of the aggrieved inmates, said.
In a bid to secure his safety, the report claimed that Kyari had to pay each of the aggrieved inmates N200,000 ‘in initial settlement fees’ and then ‘procured DSTV subscription for cells to buy loyalty and peace.’
“Regardless of the level of protection, they vowed to get him,” a source was quoted to have said. “The inmates have given him an ultimatum to return all he extorted from them or be killed.”
“Relevant officials have assessed that he will be killed or badly injured if he continues to be remanded in Kuje,” the source added.
Kyari, a deputy commissioner of police, was a decorated cop and head of the elite Intelligence Response Team of the Inspector-General Police before his fall.
He was initially suspended from police duties after being named last July by American investigators as an accomplice in the international fraud and money laundering scheme of Ramon Abbas, popularly called Hushpuppi.
While on suspension and awaiting the outcome of an internal probe, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in February accused him of involvement in a drug trafficking conspiracy. The agency released a video in which Mr Kyari appeared to be describing his use of his team to push drugs and discussing sharing of a criminal fortune.
He was charged to court in March and remanded in Kuje prison.
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