#EndSARS panel orders NDLEA to produce Abba Kyari over missing detainees

The #EndSARS panel investigating cases of police brutality in Abuja, on Friday, ordered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to produce Abba Kyari over an allegation of enforced disappearance of three persons levelled against his former police unit.

The disappeared persons – Danjuma Yakubu, Ibrahim Daniel and Choji Dung – were reported to have been arrested in 2019 by the operatives of the Inspector-General of Police-Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT) which was then being led by Mr Kyari.

Family members, who petitioned the panel over the alleged disappearance of the three men, said they had not seen the victims since their arrest by the IGP-IRT in Adamawa, Gombe, and Plateau states in December 2019.

Mr Kyari, a deputy commissioner of police, headed the IGP-IRT until he was suspended last year following his indictment by United States authorities for an international fraudulent scheme.

While still serving the suspension, the police officer, who has a series of petitions of rights violations pending against him and the IRT operatives before the #EndSARS panel, was arrested over cocaine trafficking-related offences, while the Nigerian government pursues a suit for his extradition to the U.S. in court.

The NDLEA subsequently charged him and his alleged co-conspirators with cocaine-related offences at the Federal High Court in Abuja.

On March 7, the NDLEA arraigned him along with six co-defendants, including four IRT members.

Following the arraignment, the judge, Emeka Nwite, ordered Mr Kyari and the other defendants to remain remanded in NDLEA custody.

Why #EndSARS panel ordered NDLEA to produce Kyari

Like in many petitions on police brutality filed before the #EndSARS panel, Mr Kyari’s name has been mentioned in connection to the disappearance of the three victims whom family members said they had not seen after IRT operatives arrested them in 2019.

Earlier on Tuesday, the panel ordered the police to produce the three men on Friday.

But at Friday’s hearing, police lawyer, James Idachaba, told the panel he had not been able to get the details of their whereabouts.

On his efforts to trace them, Mr Idachaba said he was at the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) to track their records when the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Joseph Egbunike, slumped and died, so he could not get any information.

He added that the IGP-IRT that allegedly arrested the victims had been disbanded, further compounding the search for the victims.

“We have not been able to get details as to the whereabouts of the three allegedly detained persons.

“We all know the IRT itself has been disbanded and we don’t know which of the locations these detainees are, if they are in custody,” the lawyer said.

Fielding questions from a panel member, John Aikpokpo-Martins, who presided over Friday’s proceedings, Mr Idachaba said a member of his team, Malik Taiwo, had also checked the IRT’s previous detention facilities and could not find any of the three detained persons.

On that basis, the panel ordered the chairman of NDLEA who is currently keeping custody of Mr Kyari, to produce him on March 22. One of the petitioners had said Mr Kyari had promised to help find the families in 2019.

“The panel hereby orders the NDLEA Chairman to present Abba Kyari before the panel on March 22,” Mr Aikpokpo-Martins, who acted as the panel’s chair, ordered on Friday.

Mr Aikpokpo-Martins also reiterated the panel’s previous orders to the police to produce the detainees and provide documents to aid its investigations.

Background

PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the families of Messrs Yakubu, Daniel and Choji Dung jointly petitioned the panel over their disappearance.

Ismail Mairungo, a brother to Messrs Yakubu and Daniel, as well as Blessing Choji-Dung, wife of Mr Dung, had appeared before the #EndSARS panel on March 3 to testify on their joint petition.

During their separate testimonies, the petitioners appealed to the panel to help secure the release of their family members from illegal police detention.

They recalled how the operatives of the IGP-IRT allegedly arrested Messrs Yakubu and Daniel, in Jada, Adamawa State, and Todi, Gombe State, respectively, on December 13, 2019.

They said Mrs Choji-Dung’s husband, Choji Dung, who was said to be Mr Yakubu’s friend, was arrested on December 17, 2019 in Buruku in Plateau State.

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Mr Mairungo and Mrs Choji-Dung had pleaded with the panel to order an unconditional release of their family members and award N10 million compensation for each of them allegedly detained by the IRT.

Serial shunning of panel’s summons by Abba Kyari

Friday was not the first time Mr Kyari would be ordered to appear or be produced before the panel to answer to series of petitions against either him or the IRT.

But Mr Kyari has not honoured any of the panel’s summons.

In November last year, long before his NDLEA ordeal started, the panel ordered Mr Kyari to appear regarding the case of one Morris Ashwe, who was said to have been missing after his arrest by IRT operatives in Makurdi, Benue State, on May 1, 2018.

The alleged victim’s brother, Raphael Ashwe, who petitioned the panel, said Morris was detained and paraded at a police station in Makurdi after his arrest.

He added that the family had access to the detainee until he was moved to Abuja two days after the parade.

According to him, the family has made several appeals and sent many letters to the IRT, asking for information on the whereabouts of his elder brother, all to no avail.

Mr Kyari, who was specifically joined as a respondent to the case, was scheduled to appear before the panel on November 26, but never came.

The 11-man Independent Investigative Panel was set up by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the aftermath of the October 2020 #EndSARS anti-police brutality protest, to probe petitions of victims of rights violations perpetrated against them by the defunct Special Anti-Robnery Squad (SARS), and other police units.

The panel is expected to recommend compensations to victims and sanctions and criminal prosecution against erring police officers in deserving cases at the end of its hearing.