Disgraced police commissioner, Abba
Kyari ordered the immediate diversion into private custody all cash and assets
seized from late kidnap kingpin Collins ‘E-Money’ Ezenwa in 2018, according to
police internal memo and testimonies of a police prosecutor.
According to a police internal
memo and the testimony of a police prosecutor, Kyari, ordered the immediate
diversion into private custody of all cash and assets seized from slain
abduction lord Collins ‘E-Money’ Ezenwa in 2018.
The NBA Legal Practitioners
Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) heard this from police prosecutor Nosa Uhumwangho
on Wednesday, as controversies have surrounded how the police handled Mr
Ezenwa’s assets since his death in 2018.
Mr Kyari and his team were
accused by Gift, the late kidnapper’s wife, of attempting to take over her late
husband’s businesses and property, as well as withdrawing money from his
accounts and putting it in their own pockets.
Mr Kyari, who is being
investigated for fraud, denied any wrongdoing in 2019 after the Nigeria Human
Rights Commission and Amnesty International accused the Intelligence Response
Team led by the suspended police chief of illegally depleting the kidnap
kingpin’s assets in separate petitions.
Mr Uhumwangho, the IRT legal
officer, claimed that on Mr Kyari’s orders, he diverted N3,075,300 generated
from Mr Ezenwa’s De-Ingrid Hotel and another property at Edingurgh, Enugu, into
his private account in a 131-paragraph affidavit submitted to the NBA-LPDC on
June 30 this year and seen by Peoples Gazette.
According to the police
prosecutor, the order to transfer the funds to Mr Kyari’s personal Zenith Bank
account was made for “reasons best known” to him.
Mr Uhumwangho also claimed that
Mr Kyari ordered a well-known cultist, Tochukwu Okeke, to collect rents from Mr
Ezenwa’s properties on his behalf. Mr Okeke is being held by the Nigerian
army’s 82 Division for alleged ties to IPOB gunmen in the southeast.
Justice Ijeoma, a lawyer and
human rights activist, filed a petition accusing the lawyer of “conduct
unbecoming of a legal practitioner,” which he denied.
Mr. Ijeoma accused Mr. Uhumwangho
of conspiring with other officers to illegally convert Mr. Ezenwa’s properties
in his petition to the NBA-LDPC.
Mr Kyari claimed that the NHRC
had authorised him to recover money from the kidnap kingpin’s account and pay
it into a private account while the case was pending in court in a letter dated
January 25, 2019.
“On the 25th of January 2019, the
Nigerian National Human Rights Commission (Presidential Panel on SARS Reforms)
in Abuja directed the Legal Officer of the IGP-IRT to recover money in the
possession of anyone in control of the aforesaid properties and force them to
account.
“In light of the foregoing, you
are hereby directed/ordered to recover any money therefrom, take possession of
it, and ensure that it is properly kept and safe in your custody, because if it
is paid into the Police account, it will be difficult to recover and tender it
before the court, as the matter is still pending before the Honourable Federal
High Court, Owerri Judicial Division. Mr Kyari’s letter stated, “The court may
make a demand for it in the near future.”
Sources from the NHRC panel that
met between the 14th and 26th of January 2019 refuted the claim.
Mr Kyari couldn’t be reach for
comment, and the police spokesperson, Frank Mba, did not respond to a request
for clarification on whether it is standard police procedure to divert assets
under investigation into private custody in order to preserve evidence.
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