It is a sad and painful story. The story of a police officer heading for the top. He was rising slowly and steadily. After all, slow and steady win race. He was always in the news for cracking one case after the other. He was the poster boy of what a diligent police officer should be. Where many of his colleagues failed, he succeeded.
The nation was hooked by his exploits. He was envied and reviled by some of his colleagues, who felt he was getting too much attention. Is he the only member of the police? Why is he the only person always taking the glory for all operations? Are there no others in the team with him? They would have asked no one in particular as they ruminated over how this colleague of theirs has overshadowed every other police officer.
His reputation preceded him everywhere he went. His name alone sent the chill down the spine of criminals. Only those who had nothing to fear relished his name and work. What else could a cop ask for? Abba Kyari, who is apparently the most decorated and celebrated police officer in the nation’s history had everything going for him. He was perceived as a potential Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
Some were already referring to him as IG in waiting. There was nothing, it seemed that would stop that from happening, everything being equal. What do you do for a hardworking person than to reward him with higher responsibility? His mentors said to the hearing of others as they dropped words here and there that ‘he is IG material’. Going at the rate he was doing then, they might have been right. You name the case, no matter how difficult it was, Kyari always solved it.
Be it robbery, fraud, Yahoo-Yahoo, banditry, murder, kidnapping and related cases, he solved them with ease. There was no crime that he had no antidote for. Robbers feared him; kidnappers fled before they saw his face. Kidnap suspect Evans’ will never forget Kyari, who brought his over 10 years lavish lifestyle to a dramatic end.
The Evans case, which is now in court, shot Kyari from the corridor into the inner sanctum of power. As head of the IG’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Kyari was the go-to officer for every tough operation. He was in charge in virtually all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), operating without let or hindrance.
Though many of his colleagues may not like his encroachment, so to say, on their territories, they could not do anything about it because he was seen as ‘the IG boy’. He was the boy of any sitting IG. Kyari did not help matters by living big. He rode exotic cars and wore fancy clothes. He knew that he was on top of his game, and saw himself as untouchable.
That was his undoing. The bubble was filled with too much air and a wise officer would have known that it would soon burst. Kyari was not discerning enough to read the handwriting on the wall. He had been named by suspects in the past as an ‘officer on the take’. The authorities allowed the allegations to slide probably because they thought the suspects were saying anything just to free themselves.
When he was named in the case of Rahman Olohunwa Abassaka Hushpuppi in the United States (U.S.), Kyari’s cup became full. Still, the ‘golden boy’ did not see that his career was tottering; he only saw the hands of his enemies in his travails. The money, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) kialleged that Hushpuppi sent to him, he said was for the payment of a tailor. He went online to pooh-pooh the allegations rather than show some sobriety.
His thinking was that the allegations would, like others in the past, blow away and he would continue to enjoy his high-profile life of wining and dining with the affluent. As Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Kyari could not maintain that kind of life on his salary. His bosses saw nothing wrong with that. Instead of finding out how he made it ‘big’, they turned their eyes the other way and allowed him to have his way.
See where their negligence has led the country today. The crime-buster has been busted. Their beloved Kyari, the officer that every IG paraded as the best thing to ever happen to the police; the officer who got a standing ovation in the House of Representatives and a Badge of Honour, has been named in a drug deal by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). Kyari’s world came crashing down that Monday, which was Valentine’s Day, as NDLEA declared him wanted for not responding to its invitation.
Before the day ended, the police turned him in and since then he has been in NDLEA custody. Kyari got into trouble for undertaking the alleged drug operation despite being suspended over the Hushpuppi case. How many of such operations did he undertake while on suspension?
It is unfortunate that Kyari’s bright future in the police is ending this way. Was he really a super cop or a rogue officer who used his uniform to amass wealth? What roles did his bosses, over the years, and the media play in the making and crashing of the man, Kyari? Was his tag of super cop a media creation or did he really earn it?
What this shows is that we should not take things for granted as they are not usually as they seem at face value. How are we sure that his investigation of cases in the past can stand the test of time with this development? In all of these, the police management cannot exonerate itself. It gave Kyari and is still giving characters like him room to flourish within the system. As a nation, we cannot afford a tainted police. It is time to cleanse the Augean stable.
Culled from Nation
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