The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has accused the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari and his handlers of engaging in a coordinated and deliberate campaign of calumny and misinformation against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

In a statement issued on Thursday, HURIWA accused Kyari and his handlers of sponsoring reports on social media claiming that two convicted drug traffickers, Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne, have indicted officers of the NDLEA of complicity in the case.

According to the National coordinator of HURIWA, Mr Emmanuel Onwubiko, findings by the group confirm that the reports are a total fabrication and a clumsy attempt to subvert the course of justice.

“Our findings, backed by official court records and witness statements, reveal a starkly different reality from the narrative being pushed by Kyari’s camp. In their official witness statements, the convicted traffickers Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne categorically denied any contact or collusion with NDLEA officers at the Enugu airport in January 2022.

“The convicts confessed that their pictures and travel details were actually sent to Abba Kyari. Despite being on suspension at the time over another criminal case for which the United States government is still seeking his extradition to the US for trial, Kyari dispatched a team from Abuja to Enugu to intercept the traffickers for his own ends.
“The convicts have stated on record that while in Kyari’s custody, they were forced under duress to indict the NDLEA.

According to HURIWA, the “video confession” currently being circulated was scripted, with Kyari’s men actively dictating what the suspects should say while recording.
HURIWA reminds the public that no amount of digital spin can erase the overwhelming evidence already admitted as exhibits in court. The world has seen the video of Abba Kyari handing over $61,400 to an NDLEA undercover agent.

This cash was established to be the proceeds from the sale of part of the cocaine Kyari’s team seized from the very same convicts they are now trying to use as pawns.

“It is pathetic that a high-ranking officer would resort to such low-level blackmail. This is a clear attempt to distract the public from the gravity of the drug trafficking charges. The U.S. government and the global community are watching this case closely. You cannot ‘spin’ your way out of a forensic sting operation.”

For the benefit of the public who are struggling hard to understand, the transcript of the conversation between Abba Kyari and an NDLEA undercover agent, already admitted as an exhibit in court, clearly confirms the transactional relationship and conspiracy between Kyari and members of the drug trafficking cartel.

Here is a sampler from the conversation between Abba Kyari and an NDLEA undercover agent: Abba Kyari: Yes, they (Cartel) will reveal to me those that are conveying it (the drugs), snap their pictures and send them to us.

So, we already know their goods, picture and the clothes they’re wearing, hope you understand, we know their names, they will give us everything. So, automatically, the team will just be waiting; they will just see them and pick them up.

NDLEA undercover agent: But are your boys inside the airport or outside?
Abba Kyari: Yes, yes, some are outside while some are inside. They will just allow them to finish everything and arrest them the moment they come out.
This tallied with the witness statements by the two already convicted Kyari’s co-accused.

In the words of one of them, Chibunna Patrick Umeibe: “I travelled to Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, on January 10, 2022, then I stayed in a lounge at the airport and somebody called me on the phone whose name I can’t remember, who gave him my number, and he was supposed to give me some stuff, which is cocaine.

“He met me at the lounge and gave me the stuff which is inside the nylon bag, then later snapped my picture.

Then, that was on January 18, 2022 (after staying 8 days in the airport), he asked me to dress the way I would travel back before he snapped the picture. Then, after snapping the picture, he left.

He knows the reason for snapping the picture, then on January 19, I boarded a plane to Nigeria. Immediately getting to the outside (Enugu international airport), a young man approached me and said that I should give him my international passport, and I asked him what for?

He brought out a police ID card and showed me immediately, and before I knew it, other police people, some in uniform, while some were not in uniform, surrounded me and pushed my brother and me inside a Sienna car and zoomed off.”

There’s therefore no doubt from the court records that the pictures of the convicts were taken by the cartel members at the Addis Ababa airport and sent to Abba Kyari to enable him to identify the couriers.

This is the only reason his officers were able to pick only the two couriers out of the multitude of people at the airport’s car park.

While calling on the Nigerian judiciary to remain undeterred by these subterranean moves to blackmail the prosecution, the group urged the media to be professional and verify claims against official court transcripts before amplifying narratives that seek to shield alleged drug kingpins from accountability.

It added that the facts of the crime remain constant; no amount of sponsored falsehood will wish away the evidence of the $61,400 bribe or the documented betrayal of public trust.