Published 1st Aug, 2021

By Emmanuel Uti

As the wind of extradition continues to hover around the head of Abba Kyari, Nigeria’s Super Cop and Deputy Commissioner of Police, Nigerians have faulted the under-fire officer with damning criticism following the emergence of a damning video.

In the video, a human rights activist and lawyer, Barrister Kabir Akingbolu, lambasted Kyari, describing him as “an officer that has been overrated by the generality of the people”.

Akingbolu explained that he wrote a petition against Kyari after the #End SARS protest ended, and following his petition, at least six others petitioned the cop for his unethical acts.

Revealing why he petitioned, Akingbolu said Kyari extorted N41 million from his client, Hafeez Majeed, after arresting him without reason. But this was only a snippet of the sauce.

“My client told me that after Kyari arrested him, he was threatened and taken to an unknown location where some people were recently murdered and he was coerced into carrying the corpse he saw into a van that would dispose of the bodies. At that point, my client was very scared,” Akingbolu said.

Capitalising on what Akingbolu’s client saw at the location, he was told to call his wife to stop their lawyer from taking further action.

“My client’s wife called me around 9:30 pm, sobbing on the phone. She wanted to know the fate of her husband, who phoned her minutes before she called me, sternly stating that the case should die down without my knowledge. That signaled to me that he had been tortured,” Akingbolu explained.

Akingbolu later learnt that around the time the wife of his client called, his client had been extorted by Kyari’s men. He said Kyari’s men first extorted N150,000 three times in a row from his client while in their custody.

“After that, they collected his ATM card and his pin under duress and went to a nearby ATM and withdrew all his money. We have the evidence. My client was later taken to a physical bank where all his money was withdrawn. In fact, it was N41 million,” Akingbolu said.

“My client was compelled to terminate his fixed savings just to withdraw the money. The police even told him to withdraw it for one Mr. Obi, who they claimed was the owner of the money. My client was shocked because he had never seen Mr. Obi in his life.”

Akingbolu also said that since he petitioned Kyari, the DCP has yet to show his face. He explained that if Kyari was a supercop as he is dubbed, he would have responded to preserve his reputation, but nothing of the sort had happened.

“Kyari would rather ignore and call my client a yahoo boy or fraudster. And this confirms what the #EndSars protests pinned on him – he oversteps his jurisdiction by labelling people as fraudsters when he’s yet to combat robbery, his main job,” Akingbolu said.

Akingbolu’s client’s ordeal did not end there. He was taken by two of Kyari’s men to another bank where they would have withdrawn another N15 million.

“The banker, upon seeing the policemen with my client, told them he had started the application, but since it was a Friday, they would not be able to withdraw the money until Monday. That delay was the only reason Kyari could not withdraw my client’s N15 million. I later found that the banker did that to protect my client because he was used to seeing him in corporate wear but was shocked to see him looking like a destitute. He believed my client was being defrauded,” Akingbolu said.

Akingbolu said he went to Kyari’s office with two lawyers and his client’s wife to inquire why his client was being extorted in their custody, but he was shocked when Kyari told him the N41 million his men withdrew was an exhibit they needed to be in possession of.

“When Kyari saw the zeal in my stance, he told me in Hausa to sit elsewhere waiting for him while he attended to others. When he was done, he took me to a room in his office and told me my client was not the owner of the N41 million.

“Kyari later said there was another N15 million elsewhere that belongs to my client. He said he would withdraw it, take N10 million, and give me N5 million. He said if I cooperated with him, he would release my client’s property, but if I disagreed, he would take all the money and take my client to court.”

Akingbolu said he had proof that Kyari seized his client’s cars, his wedding ring, his passport and that of his kids and wife. According to him, had Kyari not taken his client to court, his client would never have been free of Kyari’s evils. But that was not the only case.

He said Kyari arrested and killed a man whose wife is from Enugu. “When Kyari arrested him, he told his wife to immediately go and remarry,” Akingbolu said. Akingbolu further said Kyari killed a certain business man in Jos whose family took the matter to court.

“The family won and the court told Kyari to provide the man dead or alive, but instead the super cop went to appeal that the court judgement should not hold.

“I gain nothing from saying this, but if Kyari feels he’s being defamed, he can sue me for libel and defamation. But since I submitted my petition, he has not said anything. I can tell you for free that he’s not a supercop but someone the authorities shield and a man who uses the media well to his advantage.”

Akingbolu described Kyari as a corrupt man and exppressed hope he would eventually get justice for his clients.

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