ABUJA (Reuters) – Nigerian police arrested one of their own senior officers on drug-related charges on Monday, the force said.
Deputy Commissioner Abba Kyari was detained with four other officers over involvement in alleged criminal conspiracy, official corruption and tampering with exhibits in a case involving illicit drugs, a police spokesman added.
Kyari, who has received multiple honours, could not immediately be reached for comment and his phone appeared to be off.
Police said he and the others had been handed to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Earlier in the day, before the arrest, that agency had declared Kyari a wanted man, saying he had failed to turn up for questioning over the charges.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California, indicted Kya in a separate case in July, saying he was part of a scheme to defraud a Qatari businessperson of more than $1 million, masterminded by a celebrity fraudster known as “Hushpuppi”.
Kyari dismissed those accusations at the time.
Traffickers regularly use Nigeria’s borders and ports to move drugs into the country and the region. The United States has repeated said some authorities are complicit and has demanded a crackdown.
(Reporting by Camillus Eboh, writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Editing by Andrew Heavens)
