Suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, has appealed to the Abuja division of the Federal High Court sitting to reject the Federal Government’s request to extradite him to the United States of America, USA, to face trial insisting that the move was politically induced to punish him.
Justice Inyang Ekwo in his reaction, however, adjourned the matter till Friday to allow the counsel to the Federal Government, Mr. Pius Akutah, to respond to Kyari’s preliminary objection against his planned extradition.
The court stated that it would take both the objection and the substantive suit together.
Africa Today News, New York reports that the extradition request which is at the behest of the USA, was filed by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN).
Kyari is wanted in the U.S. to stand trial for conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
A grand jury had in April 29, 2021, filed an indictment against him with the approval of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, after which a warrant was issued for his arrest.
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Kyari, who is currently in the custody of the Kuje Correctional Center, is standing trial over alleged drug offences.
But in a motion before the court, Kyari, alleged that the plan to send him to the U.S. for prosecution, was for the purpose of punishing him.
While maintaining that his arrest and subsequent detention had “political undertone”, Kyari told the court that the request to extradite him to the USA was “directed to undermine the crackdown on various crime gangs by the Respondent in Nigeria and internationally”.
In a counter-affidavit that was deposed to by his younger brother, Mohammed, the embattled DCP insisted that all the allegations pending against him, are not extraditable offences.
‘I know as a fact that the specified offences are of a political character and were in fact made for the purpose of prosecuting and punishing the Respondent on account of his race, nationality and was not made in good faith nor in the interest of Justice’, the deponent averred.
He told the court that he is a highly decorated senior police officer that was already carrying out a ‘sting investigation’ on Ramon Olorunwa Abbas or Abdulraman Imraan Juma, otherwise known as Hushpuppi, before he was framed up and arrested.
A copy of the letter written by the Respondent to the Interpol on 28th January, 2020 and to the Inspector General of Police on 3rd March, 2020 in respect of the sting investigation being carried out by the Respondent are herewith attached as Exhibit 1a & 1b respectively. This was five months before the arrest of Ramon Abbas and others by the FBI.