Abba Kyari’s Rap Sheet Grows Longer As NDLEA Arrests Drug Baron With 103 Bank Accounts Working With Him
Embattled former supercop Abba Kyari’s charge sheet with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) seems to be growing longer than he ever hoped for. The Agency recently arrested a drug baron who is reportedly affiliated with the ex-officer.
Identified as Afam Emmanuel Ukatu, the NDLEA has disclosed that the arrested suspect is behind a Tramadol deal worth over N3 Billion that Kyari and his Intelligence Report Team (IRT) reportedly defrauded the government of and are also going to answer for.
According to the Agency, Afam, the Chairman of Mallinson Group of Companies, was initially arrested on April 13, 2022, at the MM2 terminal of the airport in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria where he was attempting to board a flight to Abuja. Upon interrogation, he recently identified the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Kyari, as one of his major allies.
The NDLEA also disclosed that the suspect also runs 103 separate bank accounts, which he allegedly uses for money laundering operations, and owns a few plastic manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies.
Speaking to newsmen today, April 25, 2022, the Agency’s spokesperson, Femi Babafemi, said: “Investigations reveal he’s been a significant importer of large consignments of different brands and high dosages of Tramadol Hydrochloride, ranging from 120mg, 200mg, 225mg, and 250mg, all of which are illicit.
Ukatu owns pharmaceutical and plastic manufacturing companies, which he used as a cover to import illicit drugs into Nigeria. This is in addition to operating 103 bank accounts, most of which are used to launder money.
Ukatu came under watch last year after five cartons of Tramadol 225mg were seized from his staff on 4th May 2021 when he sent them to sell to undercover police officers (unknown to Ukatu) from the then Kyari-led IRT of the Nigeria Police, Ikeja Lagos. The price of a carton of Tramadol was negotiated at N17million each as against the then black market value that ranged between N18million and N20million a carton in Lagos.
After the arrest of Ukatu’s staff: Pius Enidom, and Sunday Ibekwete, Kyaris men were then led by the suspects to Mallinson’s warehouse at Ojota in Lagos, Nigeria where the IRT Team seized 197 additional Cartons of Tramadol 225mg. The monetary value of the 202 cartons of Tramadol seized from Mallinson in one day was over N3billion.
Three weeks after the seizure, the Kyaris IRT team transferred only 12 Cartons of the Tramadol with one truck and a suspect to the Lagos Command of the NDLEA, leaving 190 cartons unaccounted for.
After over eight months of following the lead, anti-narcotic officers of the Agency eventually arrested Ukatu at the Lagos airport on 13th April 2022. Kyari and four top members of his team are already facing trial for a different but similar offense at a Federal High Court in Abuja.”
This development opens a series of thought-provoking questions in our minds, and we would like to share a few below.
(1) How does one individual get to own 103 separate bank accounts and run them for so long without the bank flagging and reporting him for financial crimes?
The only logical reason or explanation for this is that they (the bank officials and managers) are in it with him, and they should all be arrested as well by the EFCC immediately for aiding and abetting and conspiracy to commit money laundering, at the very least!
(2) Who exactly did Abba Kyari offend in the Nigerian polity that is now exhuming all his buried skeletons like this recently?
Many of his crimes were committed years ago and these same agencies now pouncing and pulling out “new crimes” everywhere can not truthfully claim that they were never in the know of all these atrocities!
After all, is said and done, we hope that both Kyari and all these cohorts of his will get the full and just sentences that they deserve for all the damage they have shamelessly done to the country and many innocent victims as well.
By: Dr. Sandra C. Duru
