Northern coalition, NGOs want Kyari’s suspension reviewed, transfered to NIA

Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), Northern Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), have demanded the review of DCP Abba Kyari’s suspension and immediate transfer of his case to the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA).
Rising from a roundtable meeting in Kaduna on Sunday, the coalition in its communique read to journalists said the joint CNG, CSOs and NGOs meeting was called out of concern about the deteriorating security situation and other threats to education and personal integrity and liberty of eminent Northerners.


Reading the communique signed by leaders of CNG and eight other organisations, CNG spokesman, AbdulAzeez Suleiman, said the roundtable deliberated primarily on three key issues that involve Abba Kyari/FBI saga, current security challenges and voter registration apathy.


Suleiman stated that both the FBI and the Nigerian Police authority have outrightly breached Kyari’s fundamental right to fair hearing by not allowing him the benefit of being heard before the hasty indictment against him. The groups however demanded that Kyari’s suspension be immediately reviewed and his case transfered to the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA).


“Participants at the roundtable specifically noted several procedural lapses bordering on breaches of international protocol in the supposed FBI attempt to rap Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari in the Abbas Ramon Hushpuppi affair, as well as the obvious haste by the Nigeria Police authorities to strip him of his position with an immediate replacement.


“That the FBI, an acclaimed American security agency, might invariably have breached the global standard legal and diplomatic practice by neglecting to contact either the Nigerian High Commission in the US or the Nigerian authorities through the FBI liaison offices based in Nigeria before going ahead to file an indictment of a top Nigerian security officer.
“That the FBI might have breached another fundamental criminal justice procedure by not according Mr Kyari the benefit of being heard before going ahead with the purported indictment by an American Court in the US for an offence purportedly committed in Nigeria, triable under Nigerian laws, by Nigerian courts and on Nigerian land.


“A breach of decorum and negligence of procedure might have also occurred when the FBI hurriedly published the purported indictment online without first intimating the Nigerian authorities.
“The Roundtable also raised questions on the apparent haste with which Kyari was suspended and an immediate substantive replacement named by the Nigerian police authorities, an outright breach of Mr Kyari’s fundamental right to fair hearing by both the FBI and the Nigerian police authorities by not allowing him the benefit of being heard before the hasty actions against him,” the groups said.


Speaking on the state of insecurity in the North that has led to closure of schools and distorted academic calendar, the groups called on the federal, states and local governments to demonstrate more zeal in ensuring the continuation of learning in the region by providing adequate protection for school environments.


The groups called on Northerners to discard current voters’ registration apathy, as they can only change a poor or bad leadership by doing what they did in 2015 with their Permanent Voter Cards and urged INEC to slacken the current ‘stringent procedure’ to ease access by ordinary people. 
They also called on all Northern legislators and leaders to be vigilant over concerns of ‘deliberate sabotage aimed at crippling the voter strength of the region’.