ALOY Ejimakor, the Special Counsel to the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, has accused the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, of double standards in his handling of the case involving the embattled Head of the Inspector- General of Police Intelligence Response Team, DCP Abba Kyari.
Kyari has been suspended by the Police Service Commission (PSC) over alleged link with the suspected fraudster, Ramon Abass aka Hushpuppi who is standing trial for multiple frauds in the United States.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had claimed that Kyari detained one Kelly Chibuzor at the request of Hushpuppi for one month to enable the latter and his co-conspirators fleece their Qatari victim of over $1million.
However, Malami, through one of his aides, said on Wednesday his office was yet to receive any communication from the FBI or the Nigeria Police Force on the arrest warrant issued against Kyari.
He said: “There is no official communication to that effect. Everything will be done according to the rule of law and based on the dictates of the extant provisions of the law.”
Ejimakor, who reacted to the AGF’s claim on his Facebook page, yesterday, said Malami has shown a clear bias in his handling of Kyari’s case.
He blasted the AGF over his role in the arrest and subsequent extradition of Kanu to Nigeria as well as the arrest and prosecution of Yoruba Nation activist, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho, in the Benin Republic.
Ejimakor wondered how Malami could suddenly advocate for the rule of law and due process in the police officer’s case while he had neglected same on Kanu and Igboho.
The lawyer wrote: “I do not want to compare apples with oranges but what I can say is the difficulty through which the US is seeking for the transfer of Abba Kyari to the US is illustrative of what Nigeria should have done in the case of Nnamdi Kanu and Sunday Igboho.
“Kanu probably would have been transferred by Kenya if extradition proceedings were commenced against him.
“What America is accusing Abba Kyari to have committed is clearly extraditable under the Nigerian laws and the law of the United States because the offences relate to money laundering, bribery, corruption, and all that.
“I am not arranging judgment over Abba Kyari whether he committed it or not, but the lesson everybody needs to learn, whether anybody is playing the tribal card or not, is: why would somebody believe that Abba Kyari deserves due process and the same person turns around and jubilate after the unlawful transfer otherwise known as extraordinary rendition of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and also seeks to jubilate over the attempted unlawful transfer of Igboho from Benin Republic?
“This type of thing goes to indicate the deep fault lines in Nigeria. Somebody from a part of the country thinks it is okay to grab someone from another country without due process and bring him to Nigeria to answer offences of political character but it is okay for another country to submit itself to seeking due process in the transfer of a citizen of Nigeria to the United States. It is a very deep contradiction.”
