FBI, Nigerian Police not fair to Kyari — Northern Coalition
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), other Arewa Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and NGOs have alleged that the FBI and the Nigerian Police have outrightly breached Kyari’s fundamental right to a fair hearing by not allowing him the benefit of being heard before hasty actions were taken against him.
They, therefore, demanded that, the suspension of DCP Abba Kyari be immediately reviewed and his case transferred to the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA).
This was contained in a communique read to journalists at the end of the group’s Roundtable meeting in Kaduna.
“The joint CNG, CSOs and NGOs roundtable meeting was called out of concern about the deteriorating security situation and other threats to education and personal integrity and liberty of eminent northerners,” they said.
The communique was signed by leaders of CNG and 8 other organizations.
While reading the communique to journalists, spokesman of the CNG, Abdulazeez Sulieman said, the Roundtable deliberated primarily on three key issues that involved Abba Kyari/FBI saga, current security challenges and voter registration apathy.
“Participants at the Roundtable critically reviewed the events that have unfolded since the reports of a purported indictment of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari by a United States Court for involvement in charges filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) against a suspected fraudster, Ramon Abbas Hushpuppi.”
“The Roundtable specifically noted several procedural lapses bordering on breaches of international protocol in the supposed FBI attempt to wrap DCP Kyari in the 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 a 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.”
On insecurity and education, the groups said the Roundtable specifically placed a premium on the negative impact of the general and pervasive insecurity on the educational potential of the northern region with the widespread and indiscriminate forced closure of schools and distortions to the academic calendar”.
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“It was observed that most northern states have abandoned the education sector with decayed infrastructure and inadequate personnel. Participants also noted the potential threat to educational accessibility and affordability to children of the majority poor, posed by incessant hikes intuition in several states across the region.”
“It also noted the attempts by some state governments to commercialize or outright sell some institutions of learning at the expense of the region’s educational pursuit.”
“On voter registration apathy, participants noted that weekly statistics released by the Independent National Electoral Commission shows the North is lagging by a wide margin in the ongoing voter registration and validation exercise.”
“They also noted that the apathy by northerners is a direct result of the steady loss of confidence in governance caused by the disappointment by leaders they toiled hard to elect particularly from 2015.3.
It was also noted that the new stringent procedure for registration operated by INEC is both unfavourable and monotonous for most northern communities in the absence of adequate voter education and sensitization.4.
An element of sabotage that involves deliberately making access to the official registration server difficult or outright impossible was also observed.”
“The following inferences and resolutions were inadvertently taken at the end of the Roundtable:
ON FBI: To demand the strictest proof of the FBI of the slightest compliance with any one of the standard international diplomatic decorum and criminal justice procedures raised above.”
“To demand a review of the suspension of Mr Kyari and an immediate revert to proper administrative procedures relating to discipline. To transfer the ongoing investigation of Kyari’s case by the police to the Nigeria Intelligence Agency (NIA) as a more competent body to handle such cases of international dimension.
To categorically insist on the non-repatriation of Kyari for trial in America for a case adequately covered by Nigerian laws and competently triable by Nigerian courts and to call on all human rights lawyers and civil liberties organizations in the North to rise in defence of the rights of their son from victimization by ensuring fairness by all parties involved.”
” To remind the International Community, particularly the US, that our bilateral friendship is guided by the principles of sovereignty and the standards that guide legitimate interference. Hence, their intervention, exclamations and actions should not be drawn to discountenance Nigeria’s unity by actions such as this one that tends to portray them as succumbing to the whimsical conclusions of other regions.”
” On voters registration, to call on northerners to discard the current registration apathy by reminding them that they can only change a poor or bad leadership by doing what they did in 2015 with their Permanent Voter Cards. To call on religious, traditional, cultural, youth and women groups to intensify enlightenment activities in their communities to the impending danger of a northern decline to the margin of political irrelevance, by not registering massively for the coming round of elections. To call on INEC to slacken the current stringent procedure in order to ease access by the ordinary people. To call on all northern legislators and leaders to remain vigilant over concerns of sabotage deliberately aimed at crippling the voter strength of the region.”
On the security of education, they resolved to demand the federal, state and local governments to show more zeal in securing the continuation of learning in the region by providing adequate protection for school environments, particularly in rural communities. To condemn the indiscriminate increases in intuition by governments in some northern states and to demand an immediate review of the hiked fees in all affected states.
