Malami following due process on Kyari’s case, but hurriedly extradited Kanu – Ejimakor alleges

Aloy Ejimakor, the special counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has reacted to the case linking the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, to a suspected cyber-criminal, Abbas Ramon, popularly known as Hushpuppi.

Kyari is under investigation for alleged involvement in a $1.1m Internet fraud allegedly perpetrated by Hushpuppi.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI, had claimed that Kyari detained one Kelly Chibuzor at the behest of Hushpuppi for one month to enable the latter and his co-conspirators fleece their Qatari victim of over $1m.

The Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, subsequently confirmed the receipt of FBI’s allegations against Kyari and set up a panel to probe the cop.

But Malami’s aide had said the AGF Office was yet to receive any communication from the FBI or the Nigeria Police Force regarding the arrest warrant issued against Kyari. The AGF Office is responsible for matters regarding extradition, repatriation and transfer of suspects or wanted persons.

His words: “There is no official communication to that effect.  Everything will be done according to the rule of law and based on the dictates of the extant provisions of the law”.

Commenting, Ejimakor told Punch, that it is unfair that the Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), hastily extradited the IPOB leader from Kenya to Nigeria yet the Minister of Justice says the arrest warrant issued against a Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States will follow due process.

His words: “I do not want to compare apples with oranges but what I can say is the difficulty through which the US is seeking for the transfer of Abba Kyari to the US is illustrative of what Nigeria should have done in the case of Nnamdi Kanu. Kanu probably would have been transferred by Kenya if extradition proceedings were commenced against him.

READ ALSO: Stop threat of lockdown in South East Zone, VON DG counsels IPOB

“What America is accusing Abba Kyari to have committed is clearly extraditable under the Nigerian laws and the law of the United States because the offences relate to money laundering, bribery, corruption and all that.

“I am not arranging judgment over Abba Kyari whether he committed it or not but the lesson everybody needs to learn, whether anybody is playing the tribal card or not, is: why would somebody believe that Abba Kyari deserves due process and the same person turns around and jubilate after the unlawful transfer otherwise known as extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and also seeks to jubilate over the attempted unlawful transfer of (Sunday) Igboho from Benin Republic?

“This type of thing goes to indicate the deep fault lines in Nigeria. Somebody from a part of the country thinks it is okay to grab someone from another country without due process and bring him to Nigeria to answer offences of political character but it is okay for another country to submit itself to seeking due process in the transfer of a citizen of Nigeria to the United States. It is a very deep contradiction.”