Enlightened Nigerians know something either negative or positive about the two names that sum up the title of this write-up, they are Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abba Kyari, who is known to be a very diligent and tough police officer. In security quarters, he is a “good cop” who many junior policemen are aspiring to emulate. Twice he had opened up to this writer how he strategically planned raids and rounded up kidnappers in the forest.
His victories endeared him to many Nigerians, high and low. He had stood before leaders receiving awards for his patrioutic gallantry.
However, among those that gravitated towards him was a “celebrity” known by his nickname Ray Hushpuppi, whose real name is Ramon Olorunwa Abbas, a Lagosian. Abbas is a man of many colours in terms of his antecedents that portray him in bad light before the Nigerian public. Records about him speak of a man with dubious wealth and even more dubious mentality.
Mr. Abbas, commonly known as Hushpuppi, is a 38 years old Nigerian. He was born on October 11, 1982. His is an Instagram celebrity. He claimed to be a real estate developer. More revelations about him show that he has a global followership of over 2.5 million followers on Instagram. However, he is facing criminal charges in the United States for conspiracy to launder money obtained from business email compromise frauds and other scams, including an alledged scheme that he defrauded a U.S. law firm of about $40 billion and illegally transferred $14.7 million from a foreign financial institution. More revelations say that he allegedly targeted to steal $124m from an English football club, but for his arrest by the Dubai Police in June 2020. This culminated in his extradition to the U.S.
Before his extradition, his apartment in Palazzo Versace was raided in an operation code-named Fox Hunt 2. Abbas was arrested alongside 11 others. In six simultaneous raids, detectives seized more than 150 million dirham (about $40m) in cash, 13 luxury cars worth Dh25 million ($7m), 21 laptops, 47 smartphones, 15 memory storage devices, five external hard drives and 800,000 emails of potential victims, alongside suitcases full of cash. The arrest was part of an FBI investigation that indicted him of being a ‘key player’ in a transnational cybercrime network that provided “safe havens” for stolen money around the world.
The ugly and unfortunate twist in his case was his implicating DCP Kyari in his statement before FBI investigators and before a U.S. court that he knows DCP Kyari and had once during his criminal exploits allegedly bribed Kyari to arrest and jail one of his rivals in Nigeria over a disputed sharing of a $1.1m scam gleaned off a Qatari businessman.
The U.S. court papers also revealed that Yusuf Adekinka Anifowoshe, a.k.a. AJ, 26, of Brooklyn, New York, allegedly played a role in the fraud, assisting Abbas with a call to the victim, posing as “Malik.”
Special agents with the FBI arrested Anifowoshe in New York on July 22. The conspirators allegedly defrauded the victim of more than $1.1m.
In reaction to the U.S. disclosure, Kyari, on his Facebook page, said, “Abbas who we later came to know as Hushpuppi called our office about two years ago that somebody in Nigeria seriously threatened to kill his family here in Nigeria and he sent the person’s phone number and pleaded we take action before the person attacks his family. We traced and arrested the suspect and after investigations we discovered there wasn’t an actual threat to anyone’s life. And they are long-time friends who have money issues between them hence we released the suspect on bail to go and he was not taken to any jail.
“Nobody demanded for a kobo from Abbas Hushpuppi. Our focus was to save people’s lives that were purported to have been threatened. Later, he saw some of my native clothes and caps on my social media page and he said he likes them and he was connected to the person selling the clothes and he sent about N300k directly to the person’s account. The native clothes and caps (5 sets) were brought to our office and he sent somebody to collect them in our office.
“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. This is the true story. Vincent is alive, he can be contacted.”
Sequel to this ugly scenario, the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Usman Baba Alkali, has appropriately taken the first reasonable step by requesting from the Police Service Commissior an approval to officially suspend Kyari from his exalted office, while the police set up a four-man panel to thoroughly interrogate him. Indeed, Kyari missed it.
As a senior police officer, discretion should have been his watchword. Questions waiting for answer are hot on the lips of many who, after acknowledging his operational exploits, would shake their heads in disbelief. His case is like a man whose favourite son was accused of stealing and the crowd linked the boy to the theft. Would the father not call in his son and question him before taking any step?
One hopes that all that is unfolding, though diversionary, with all the killings in the country, is not panic measures to authenticate the FBI position. Nigeria is a sovereign country. So, the investigation should not be done hurriedly with the intention of impressing anybody, institution or country.
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Politicization of security (1)
When politics is not handled satisfactorily so that a peaceful enviroment subsists, then security becomes a problem for every citizen. That is why it is expedient for managers or the players of politics to always be very conscious of every step and activity they carry out. They ought to be guided to promote not only harmony in the society but should also bring and circulate dividends of the end product of politics, which is democracy.
Therefore, when politics is played satisfactorily, it brings dividends of democracy, which include stable, condusive and progressive society that is protected by effective and efficient security. In other words, if politicians fail to practice politics properly, they inadvertently invite insecurity and this impedes progress and development in the society.
Do you see a society where there is insecurity? It automatically suggests that democracy has been tampered with and politicians are playing the game in a very dirty way. Security ought to be under the authority of politicians for democracy to thrive but when the opposite becomes the norm, then insecurity is created and there is chaos; destruction and death of innocent citizens would be the end result.
(To be continued)