SH0CKING! Abba Kyari’s Team Accused Of Extorting N1Million Each From Suspected IPOB Members

The Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, under the leadership of the embattled Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, has been accused of extorting at least ₦1 million each from detained suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra.

According to SaharaReporters, the police operatives extorted seven people among the people arrested in the South-East during operations by the IGP team.

The platform further stated that the team led by the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police were raided between March and June 2021 and taken to Abuja.

It was reported that the suspected IPOB members were detained at the former Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad headquarters, Abuja.

One of the lawyers in charge of the cases of the detainees disclosed that the police operatives under the decorated cop extorted between N1 million and N1.5 million each from the suspects which were later released.

It was gathered that the team under Kyari failed to release people who could not afford the bribes.

It was reported that the police operatives refused to release four married woman who were identified as Mrs Maria Ezedialu, arrested in Owerri (Imo State) in March 2021, and transferred to IRT, Abuja; Mrs Ngozi Umeadi, a nursing mother arrested at a hospital in Onitsha (Anambra State) where she was receiving postpartum care; Mrs Ngozi Dave, arrested in Lagos State; and Mrs. Ifeyinwa Ebole, who was arrested with her husband, Cletus Ebole.

Kyari was accused of arresting residents of the South-East under the guise of IPOB members with three other top police officers.

SaharaReporters noted that the officers are identified as CP Abutu Yaro, in charge of the Imo State command; DCP Kolo Yusuf of the Special Tactical Squad and Tactical Intelligence Unit, and one DIG Tijani Baba of the Directorate of Force Intelligence Bureau.

The leader of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a civil rights organisation based in Anambra State, Emeka Umeagbalasi, while speaking on the development said, “The South-East residents were all raided and arrested by the Kyari’s team as IPOB suspects and detained without access to families or lawyers until some of them were taken to an Area Court in Abuja and granted bail.”

“Nine remanded survivors are Citizens Anthony Mba, Vincent Kalu, Iloejebechukwu Ikeji, Ezike Chukwuebuka Victor, Bede Obizue, Uchenna Ugwu, Okeke Boniface, Enemuo Vitus, and Okechukwu Oguguo.

“At abduction, their mobile phones were seized leading to electronic disappearance of the victims’ bank deposits and tracking down of their friends, business associates, in-laws, and relatives, numbering dozens who were abducted,” he added.  

“Intersociety was also reliably informed that seven of the 24 survivors in that section of the IRT later left after each of them was forced to part with N1 million or N1.1 million, remaining 17 of them who could not afford the sum.”

The Intersociety in a report released on Tuesday claimed that at least 80 uninvestigated South-East Residents have been taken away by the police since March 2021.

“The recent custodial killing of detained Igbo citizens was disclosed to Intersociety by an activist and legal practitioner who is very conversant with the matter and has been following same. There are hundreds of others arrested mainly in Imo State under the direct supervision of CP Abutu Yaro and handed over to DCP Abba Kyari’s team for ‘further interrogation and investigation in Abuja’. Some may have been killed.”

“Information about the women and others was received a few days ago after 15 of the remaining survivors in that section were arraigned at an Abuja Area Court on August 2 and remanded at Keffi in Nasarawa State.”