TheCable

BY TUNDE AKANDE

It might not be out of place to describe beleaguered deputy commissioner of police, Abba Kyari, as the face of the Nigeria Police Force. When the United States(US) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported the alleged deal between popular Instagram star, Hushpuppi, an alleged scammer, to the Nigeria authorities, there were not a few who thought it was an attempt to taint a super cop who was on his journey to the coveted IGP position.

The body language of both the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, and the inspector general of police (IGP), Usman Baba Alkali, looked like Abba Kyari was going to be let off the hook. The IGP did not consider releasing Abba Kyari at the request of the FBI who wanted him for trial in the US. He said he had never received any such request.

Just last week, the report of a panel which the IGP set up to look into the damning allegations of the FBI against Abba Kyari was returned to the IGP by the Police Service Commission headed by ex- IGP, Musiliu Smith. The PSC said the report could not be admitted in court and therefore ordered that another panel be set up to look into the allegations again, thus confirming the rumors that the report was heavily tilted in favour of Abba Kyari. Possibly, if that report had been accepted, Abba Kyari could have been recalled from suspension and returned to his job as the head of the intelligence response team (IRT). He would have won without ever going to court.

Abba Kyari and his trial, so far, typify the attitude of an average policeman in Nigeria to the public he is called to serve. Many years ago, the Nigeria Police developed and deployed a slogan to polish its image. It told Nigerians who were feeling it was better not to have any police than have the one the nation was saddled with, that: “Police is Your Friend”. But the slogan didn’t change anything. The police remain as unfriendly as possible to an average Nigerian.

Public relations works only after appropriate cleansing work had been done before a slogan is communicated. In the case of police, Nigerians were still hearing these policemen and women boasting that they would be killed and nothing would happen as consequence. “I will kill you and nothing would happen,” remains a common refrain from the police. And they always have examples to back up their threats, cases of Nigerians who had been killed without trial and their bodies were thrown away, without a trace.

There are allegations of extra-judicial killings against the IRT. Some have gone so far as to allege that the Kyari-led IRT team had, in the course of duty, engaged some accused persons to dispose the dead bodies of some other accused who had been killed in police cells. In fact, several human rights organizations have accused the police of brutality and extra-judicial killings of accused persons.

Then, if the type of policemen and policewomen Nigerians encounter daily are the ones that are their friends, it is better to have enemies than hope for such friends.

I have a friend, a former colleague who attended the same church as me, who is a land-grabbing agent and had made a fortune about the time Abba Kyari was the head of the special anti-robbery squad (SARS) in Lagos. I met him as he went to inspect a parcel of land that belong to him somewhere in the Lekki-Ajah axis in Lagos. He told me God had just blessed him with a juicy job after everything about the job had been concluded. It was a grace placed on his laps by the Almighty.

I was interested to hear his miracle, so I goaded him on. All the court processes had been completed, a landowning family had won its case against Lagos state. It only remained the physical possession of the disputed land and somebody had mentioned him to the family. A telephone call came to him during a service in the big church he now attends where he is one of the provincial music directors. What did he do? “I found N500,000.00 and gave it to the boss of SARS and promptly they mobilised to the field and threw out the contending land grabbers”.

For his service, he told me, “we have shared the land among ourselves and I’m going now to inspect my own portion”. The police were indeed the friend of my friend but not a friend of law and order. That is how my friend makes his money in Lagos, with brigandage, not minding whether the God he claims to serve is pleased or not, not caring whether the laws of the land are followed or not.

That is one facet of the Nigeria Police that Abba Kyari typifies. So, if you think our gallant youth had no reason to vent their anger against the government during the #EndSARS peaceful protest, you now have evidence that they do.

Well, it does not seem as if all the nepotism and tribal sentiments raked in support of Abba Kyari will work this time around. But even if it has any chance of working because this is Nigeria, a country of magicians, in this instance, Abba Kyari is in hot water, now in the hand of Buba Marwa, a retired brigadier in the Nigeria Army who left the army as an officer that gets things done where others fail.

Marwa has a reputation as a goal-getter. As a military administrator, he turned Lagos around where a superior officer before him had failed. Marwa wears on his neck that medal of efficiency. He is now the chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), an organization that had been comatose and lax in the war against drug trafficking.

As soon as Marwa resumed duty in the agency, things turned around and many kingpins of drug dealings are now in the NDLEA net. One of the latest arrests is Abba Kyari. Only recently, Marwa undertook a visit to the IGP Alkali to resolve grey areas on a drug case, and pronto, Abba Kyari was clamped in the NDLEA cell. The only assurance Nigerians have now is that the latest case of Abba Kyari is not in the hand of the police but in the hands of Buba Marwa who is reputed for honesty and fair deal.

Despite his impeccable record in the public service as a goal-getter, Buba Marwa has not been able to convince his state, Adamawa, to let him serve them as a governor in the current democratic dispensation. That sadly tells the story of why Nigeria is not moving forward; good and efficient men stand no chance of winning elections in Nigeria. That’s why many believe that elective offices are for crooks and thieves.

Take an opinion poll among Nigerians and you will certainly get the result that Marwa will certainly get this one done to the satisfaction of Nigerians. The only guarantee they may not give is what the response of President Muhammadu Buhari will be. We don’t know those who are connected with the president and could tilt the table in favour of Abba Kyari. If that happens, Abba Kyari will again typify the face of the Nigeria Police.

However, Abba Kyari is already complaining against the kind of treatment he had given the types of Omoyele Sowore, who will not stop drumming it into the ears of Nigerians that only a revolution can solve the problem of the country.

The super cop has also engaged a lawyer who is shouting himself hoarse for everybody to hear that his client is diabetic and therefore should be released from the NDLEA cell. I thought only El-Zakzaky, the head of the radical Muslim Shiite group, and Omoyele Sowore could plead diabetes in court. We are getting to know that a policeman can be involved in the bug too.

Well, whatever happens, Abba Kyari seems to have gotten himself into a box from which he may not wriggle out, except, of course, the magicians at the presidency get to work. But has the Nigeria Police gotten itself into a box? Time will tell. But the clamour for regional police will definitely give it a better face.

Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master’s degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos