Six months after the indictment of a suspended Police chief Abba Kyari for allegedly receiving N8 million from a confessed fraudster Ramon Abbas (Hushpuppi), the Police Service Commission (PSC) has rejected a report from the panel set up to investigate the allegation.
Spokesperson for the PSC Ikechukwu Ani confirmed the rejection to The ICIR on Friday via a telephone interview.
However, he said he was unavailable to give further details on the case.
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The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Alkali Usman Baba had set up a four-man panel to investigate Kyari’s indictment.
The panel called the Special Investigation Panel (SIP) was headed by Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID) Joseph Egbunike.
Kyari’s indictment followed a warrant of arrest issued by Otis Wright, a judge in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, on July 26, to provide the accused to answer questions over the alleged bribery.
Kyari was allegedly bribed by Hushpuppi to have Chibuzo Vincent, one of his rivals, arrested and jailed in Nigeria following a dispute over a $1.1 million fraud against a Qatari businessperson.
Being a serving officer of the Nigeria Police Force at the time, Kyari was suspended and an investigation was ordered into the allegations levelled against him by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US.
The Police Service Commission, which is saddled with the constitutional duty of promotion, dismissal and discipline of police officers, also constituted its own investigative panel into the allegation.
According to the PSC, the panel was set up to assist the commission to make an informed decision when the Police investigative panel’s report would be submitted for consideration.
The PSC has been silent on its own independent investigation.
The report of the SPIP was said to have been rejected by the commission over lack of depth.
Six months down the lane, there has been no substantial headway into Kyari’s case following the rejection of the report.
A Human Rights Lawyer Abdul Mahmud had told The ICIR in an interview that it was hard to say whether Nigerians should expect a substantial report from the SPIP to ‘review’ the allegations against Kyari.
He noted that three years ago, non-governmental organisations given a report on alleged corruption under Kyari-led Internal Response Team (IRT), but it was ignored until the FBI’s request for extradition.
Another Human Rights Lawyer Festus Ogun told The ICIR that the Federal Government was not sincere in pursuing justice in the allegations against Kyari.
“The attitude of Nigerian leadership shows that they are truly not committed to ensuring that justice is done in Kyari’s case,” Ogun said.
He noted that the delay for about half a year on Kyari’s case x-rayed the lackluster attitude of the Nigerian government in bringing corrupt officials to justice.
“What the Kyari’s imbroglio has shown Nigerians is that we are not just a corrupt country, but we are a country where impunity reigns. That is why the law does not rule Nigeria, rather, it is men that rule Nigeria,” he noted.
The ICIR had also reported that under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s corruption perception index ranking has worsened, according to Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI 2021) report released on Tuesday.
The report stated that Nigeria dropped from 149th to 154th among 180 countries.
In 2015, Nigeria ranked 136th, 136th in 2016, 148th in 2017, 144th in 2018, 146th in 2019, and 149th in 2020.
In 2015, Buhari had campaigned to be Nigeria’s president under the mantra of fighting corruption and securing lives and properties. Both promises have remained unfulfilled as he prepares to leave office in 2023 after serving two terms.
Lukman Abolade is an Investigative reporter with The ICIR. Reach out to him via [email protected], on twitter @AboladeLAA and FB @Correction94