The suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, has been arrested by the Nigerian Police.
Abba Kyari, a celebrated crime buster and former head of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Intelligence Response Team (IRT), was arrested shortly after being declared wanted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
He was arrested alongside four others on Monday afternoon.
Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) had declared Kyari wanted for drug trafficking.
The NDLEA said an investigation has revealed that the celebrated Kyari is a member of a drug syndicate operating across the globe.
NDLEA Spokesperson, Mr Femi Babafemi, told journalists on Monday in Abuja that the embattled Kyari was declared wanted over his involvement in a 25kgs Cocaine deal.
Already, The Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, has said there are reasonable grounds to proceed against Kyari, who was fingered in a multi-million dollars fraud spearheaded by Ramon Abass, aka Hushpuppi.
The U.S. government had in July 2021, unveiled the charges against Mr Kyari and other alleged co-conspirators.
Hushpuppy, a Nigerian Instagram celebrity until his arrest in Dubai, UAE, in June 2020, is one of the arrowheads of the scam.
He has pleaded guilty to the charges in a separate case, and his sentence is billed to come up later in the year.
“As far as I am concerned, the parties are discussing, the parties are collaborating and there are exchanges of correspondence from the perspective of investigation, from the perspective of extradition and associated things,” Malami had said in an interview on Channels Television.
Asked if Mr Kyari was found “guilty” in the police report, Malami said, “You can’t find someone guilty, but perhaps, reasonable grounds for suspicion can be established which will translate into prosecution.”
The NDLEA Spokesperson said it took the action of declaring Kyari wanted because all efforts to get him to honour formal invitations for his interrogation failed.