DEPUTY Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari has failed to respond to the allegation that he sent his account details and personally collected money from the arrested internet fraudster Ramon Abbas, popularly known Hushpuppi, in order to arrest and jail an associate, Chibuzo Vincent.
The ICIR contacted Kyari on his known telephone number, official and verified Facebook and verified Instagram at 8:58am on Thursday, July 29, to verify the allegation of bribery collection, but he gave no response.
He later issued a statement exonerating himself and other security personnel involved in the operation stating that, “nobody demanded for a kobo from Abbas Hushpuppi. Our focus was to save people’s lives, that were purported to have been threatened.”
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The press statement was made public through his verified social media account. He did not personally exonerate himself, rather he emphasised that “nobody demanded any money from Abbas Hushpuppi and nobody collected any money from him.
“We responded to a distress call he made on threat to his family and released the suspect when we discovered there was no life threat from the suspect…”
But, at about 1:13pm, The ICIR reached out, for the second time, to the telephone number, official and verified Facebook and verified Instagram to ask whether he collected any cash gift from the accused person. He never responded.
The allegation against Kyari was contained in a statement released on Wednesday by the United States Department of Justice titled, ‘Six Indicted in International Scheme to Defraud Qatari School Founder and then Launder over $1 Million in Illicit Proceeds.’
Photo Credit: UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT for the Central District of California
The statement had alleged that Kyari sent HushPuppi his bank account details so that he could deposit payment for Vincent’s arrest and imprisonment. It also said Kyari sent Abbas photographs of Vincent after his arrest.
But the top police officer failed to respond directly to the allegation.
Kyari is a former head of the disbanded notorious Lagos State unit of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the current head of the Inspector General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT).
Olayinka works with The ICIR as the Social Media Manager, Reporter and Fact-checker. You can shoot him an email via [email protected]. You can as well follow him on Twitter via @BelloYinka72