The attorney-general of the federation and minister of justice, Abubakar Malami, has said that he only ordered further probe into the case of suspended commander of police in charge of Intelligence Response Team (IRT), DCP Abba Kyari.
According to the AGF, he never exonerated Kyari from the money laundering case relating to his links to international wire fraudster suspect, Ramon Abbas, alias Hushpuppi.
The special assistant on media and public relations to the AGF, Dr Umar Jibrilu Gwandu, said there appears to be misunderstanding regarding the issue.
”It was a case of work in progress in respect of which the office of the attorney general of the federation requested further probe in relation to some aspects of the investigation”, he said.
Gwandu said it was clear that the conclusion on the alleged contradiction on the issue was a clear case of misconception.
”The Office of the Attorney-general of the Federation and Minister of Justice’s stance is that no conclusion has been reached in the absence of evidence relating to the first report.
”The issues were raised for further investigation with a view to cover the field in investigation in order to arrive at an informed decision”, he added.
At the weekend, there were reports that the office of the AGF had made a u-turn in the case of Abba Kyari.
It had been reported that the office of the AGF had issued a new legal advice exonerating Kyari from money laundering allegations.
Last week, the office of the AGF, which in its first legal advice admitted that a prima-facie case of money laundering of 33 payments was established by the late DIG Joseph Egbunike-led Special Investigation Panel (SIP) against Kyari, has now said there are no links with Kyari following further investigations.
Kyari and others are at present facing criminal charges in court over involvement in drugs and money laundering allegations.
The new legal advice with reference number, DPPA/LA/814/21, written on behalf of the AGF by the Director of Public Prosecutions, Ministry of Justice, Mohammed Abubakar, emphasized that the evidence contained in the case diary showed no link between DCP Abba Kyari and Hushpuppi.
It said the evidence contained in the case diary ‘was not sufficient to indicate or show that the said monies (N279 million) were laundered directly or indirectly by Kyari to disguise their origin’ adding that ‘the police report on the investigation failed to probe the gaps identified in their investigation by the AGF office.
The advice entitled ‘Re: Forwarding of the investigation report of the Nigeria Police Force Special Investigation Team and request for legal advice with regards to allegations of criminal conspiracy, aiding and abetting Internet fraud, wire fraud, identity theft and money laundering against DCP Abba Kyari’ was addressed to IGP Usman Alkali Baba.
The new legal advice reads, “I am directed to inform you that after a careful study of the said response wherein you stated that ‘the monies have been traced to Zenith Bank account no. 2255416115 belonging to Usman Ibrahim Waziri; Guaranty Trust Bank account no. 0130665392 belonging to Adekoya Sikiru; Zenith Bank account no. 2080537566 belonging to Hussein Ala and other funds went to Sharon Festus. The monies were withdrawn and utilised by the aforementioned account holders and the lady
”It is our view that the above response has not linked the suspect, DCP Abba Kyari, to the offence of money laundering as the evidence contained in the case diary is not sufficient to indicate or show that the said monies were laundered directly or indirectly by Kyari to disguise their origin, more so that the aforementioned recipients or receivers exonerated him in their statements as having nothing to do with the monies.”
