A coalition of 52 northern groups has petitioned the United States (US), asking for fairness in probing the bribery allegation levelled against Abba Kyari, the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The coalition of groups, also known as PAN-Arewa, said there were a number of “fundamental procedural lapses in the conduct of the investigation, which tend not only to threaten the sovereign status of Nigeria but also infringe on its citizen’s rights and civil liberties”.
According to the petition signed by Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, the spokesperson of the group, and sent to the US embassy in Nigeria, the coalition of northern social-cultural organisations is worried about the profiling of Kyari.
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The petition, countersigned by representatives of other NGOs and CSOs noted, that FBI did not contact the Nigerian authorities before indicting the supercop.
“We also note that the FBI might have breached another fundamental criminal justice procedure by not according Mr. Kyari the benefit of being heard before going ahead with the purported indictment by an American Court in the US for an offence purportedly committed in Nigeria, triable under Nigerian laws, by Nigerian courts and on Nigerian land,” the petition read.
“A breach of decorum and negligence of procedure might have also occurred when the FBI hurriedly published the purported indictment online without first intimating the Nigerian authorities and hearing the case of the accused.”
The US District Court of Central California ordered FBI to track Kyari down for participating in a multi-million dollar fraud. Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, allegedly paid Kyari up to N8 million to arrest and jail a certain Chibuzo Vincent.
Although he denied having a hand in the fraud, he had been under fire since the allegations were made against him. He has also lost his position as Head of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
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