So, yes, the FBI could not have successfully petitioned for warrant of arrest of the police chief unless there are some incontrovertible evidence linking him to some criminal activities as revealed by Hushpuppi which the court reviewed and found credible enough and which met the probable cause threshold to warrant issuing same. Desperate for a plea deal, Hushpuppi must have persuaded the FBI by the weight of evidence which he produced in order to make them want to deal.
Anyone who is conversant with the United States of America premier crime fighting bureau knows that they hardly accede to plea bargain unless there is a convincing reason to do that. Most of their cases are usually successfully prosecuted to conviction of the accused, so they have no incentive to make plea deals. It is usually only when they have some bigger fish to net that they accept a plea bargain by a smaller fish, who is desperate for a reduced term of imprisonment because all Federal sentences run their full term, unless commuted by the president. Therefore Hushpuppi must have been persuaded by his counsel to give up all his criminal accomplices, aiders and abetters, in order to get a reduced term in prison.
It does not matter what some Nigerians are saying in defense of the police chief implicated in Hushpuppi's criminal enterprise. The only thing that matters now is for him to start getting ready to navigate the intricate web of the United States of America justice system where judges are not bribed and prosecutors are not easily compromised. His saying that it is a "lie" or that he was just a friend with Hushpuppi will not fly nor be enough as there are paper trails and electronic signatures which the FBI have in their possession before they persuaded the judge to grant the warrant of arrest on the police chief.
The police chief must therefore explain what connects him to Hushpuppi and what the various amounts traced from Hushpuppi to him were for. If they were payments, for what services? If they were gifts, for what? Birthdays, wedding or "friendship" gifts? He must also explain the numerous phone calls and messages which both of them exchanged; as well as reason fo his trip to Dubai to visit the Billionaire Gucci Master. Equally important is the SOS phone call which he claimed he received from Hushpuppi and whether it passed through normal police procedures. Was it received and processed through official police channel or through Abba Kyari's personal direct line, asking him to do the needful for a reward of a certain percentage of the recoverable.
Who were the other officers involved in arresting Mr Kelly Chibuzor Vincent as directed by Hushpuppi? Was the incident, the complaint, arrest and interrogation formally recorded in official police crime data base or was it a hush hush, side job, which he did outside the chain of command and official police investigatory duty, for which he was rewarded handsomely. But we will not know the answers to many of these questions unless he is extradited to the United States of America, interrogated by the FBI, put on trial and cross examined; assuming that he will testify and not plead the 5th.
Coincidentally, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari seems to enjoy the company of "business" men of questionable income sources. He once went to Dubai to visit Hushpuppi, the Billionaire Gucci Master. He hung out with the Invictus Group Forbes magazine rated youngest "billionaire" Obinwanne Okeke who is now doing ten years term in a United States of America prison for Internet fraud. Just recently, he was at Obi Cubana's mother's funeral extravaganza at Oba and even wore a matching uniform with the Cubana mogul. So, why was he at Oba and what was his business being there and if it was on invitation, what business relationship exists between him and the Cuban Group. There is no other plausible relationship between them except that it is a continuation of his pattern of giving cover for criminal activities.
Now, with Hushpuppi and the Invictus fella captured, many people who are questioning the sources of Obi Cubana's wealth are now more invigorated and doing some arithmetics, adding the numbers, with Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari as the common denominator. Hushpuppi once passed off his fraudulent activities as real estate investments. Obinwanne Okeke once passed off his own Internet fraud as new Media and real estate investment. So are we seeing another likely to be unmasked Obi Cubana passing off his own "money secrets" as night clubs and show businesses? It is also deducible that the two businesses are the preferred methods of laundering money by criminal organizations.
But time will tell as no crime ever goes unpunished. Hushpuppi and Obinwanne Okeke never knew few years ago that their run on the criminal freeway will meet a dashed hope so soon. So for now, lets just suspend our disbelief that "hard-work" minted Obi Cubana's wealth. Until the United States of America caught Hushpuppi through the Dubai authorities, many gullible Nigerians believed that "real estate" made him a wealthy man; ditto Invictus Obinwanne Okeke. Currently, the same Nigerians now believe that Obi Cubana made his money through hard-work as he claimed and you wonder why wheelbarrow pushers are not all extremely wealthy. So, until he is similarly unmasked someday, we shall grant him the title of the "Hardest Working Man Alive in Nigeria."
But before these newbies, there were the Ezegos, the Fred Ajuduas, the John Nebolisas, the Ade Bendels, the Emeka Ofors, the Nwudes and all other 419 scions who rode the streets and highways of Nigeria with unabashed impunity, serenaded by minstrels and accompanied by stretched motorcade convoys and police escorts. Nigerians were told similarly then that these fraudsters were international "business men", but where are they all now? Time humbles everything, including very idiotic and undisciplined louts who flaunt what they are supposed to be circumspect and discrete about. But in a land of abject poverty, their only concern is how to impress the vainglorious and use corrupt police officers for maximum effect.
How rich are these people anyway or is it a case of in the land of the blind where the single eyed is the king? What exactly is their wealth portfolio? How many payroll do they sign off each month? How many financial statements have they filed in the past five years and how much did they pay in taxes? How many industries have they built? How many research foundations have they endowed? What legacy will they leave behind? Aliko Dangote is building a $10 billion refinery and someone else is busy, happily bankrolling a $200 million funeral through the proxy of "friends". A matter made worse because he is supposedly "educated" but chose to live such a life of advertised profligacy.
it is what Nnamdi Azikwe Jr once referred to as primitive wealth, popularly called "money miss road"; otherwise imagine the number of people which such amount of money would have empowered in a society with nearly 58% unemployment rate and where so many children go to bed every night on hungry stomachs. ICHEOKU criticized Jeff Bezos for wasting resources on a junket to the edge of space, but at least he has Amazon and employs hundreds of thousands of people. But these fellas? Anyway, back to Hushpuppi and his Abba Kyari runs man.
Anyone who is conversant with Nigerian Police Force knows that some of them collaborate with criminals and sometimes even participate in criminal activities as the criminals themselves. This is the reason crimes are not regularly solved in Nigeria because those tasked with solving crimes are themselves the criminals or are facilitating the crimes themselves for a percentage cut in the proceeds. Hushpuppi is not the first criminal to enjoy the services of a police officer in Nigeria for an agreed payment of a fee and he will not be the last. So, instead of all the effort to confuse Nigerians by declaring his innocence, Abba Kyari should prepare for the United States justice system because a United States of America judge would not issue a warrant for his arrest unless there is convincing evidence of probable cause of a crime which implicated him.
It might be in telephone calls, texts and other electronic messages, bank account information and money transfers which Hushpuppi ponied up which were then investigated and collaborated before the FBI successfully secured a warrant for his arrest. The Justice system in America, unlike Nigeria where some financial inducements can easily influence outcomes, is not as compromised. So Abba Kyari most likely have a case to answer which persuaded the court to finally issue a warrant for his arrest on a third try by the prosecutors. It shows that they were able to finally meet the threshold of probable cause based on substantial evidence of Abba Kyari's complicity in the fraudulent schemes of Hushpuppi.
International financial crime always leaves paper trails or electronic signatures; so it will not be enough for Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari to merely "deny" any involvement in Hushpuppi's criminal activities or try to explain it away as merely "aiding a friend in need" who later paid some money for some traditional outfits made by his tailor. He will need to do more to explain his innocence, admitted the prosecution has the onus to prove what they are alleging. But as a high ranking police officer, he owes the Nigerian public a satisfactory explanation about his involvement with world's notorious fraudster Hushpuppi. What business brought them together and how did Hushpuppi obtain his private personal telephone number.
Many people know about the Nigerian factor and how men and women of means easily influence outcomes in Nigeria. With their money, they easily have their way with anybody who gets on their wrong side and upon an agreed sum paid to corrupt police officers, such people can easily disappear never to be seen or heard from forever. It is extrajudicial killing and Nigeria police are notorious for it. As commentator observed and ICHEOKU completely understands, "there is nothing to be surprised about the allegation that Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari was involved in some fraudulent activity with Internet fraudster Hushpuppi." So many police men and women in Nigeria, from rank and file to the topmost, are somewhat involved in aiding and abetting crimes. The only reason Hushpuppi is being held is because he was arrested outside Nigeria, otherwise he would be moving around freely if he was in Nigeria with even police escort for effect.
Since the Nigeria Police Force has reaffirmed its commitment to the pursuit of justice and the strengthening of its professional relationship with the FBI and other international crime fighting partners, the only thing now expected of them is to immediately turn over to the FBI their wanted suspect, Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari. There is a valid warrant for his arrest for money laundering activities involving Hushpuppi and Nigeria has no choice in the matter because they have a treaty with the United States for cross extraditing criminals. If at the end, he is found not guilty by the court, he will, as a matter of course, be reinstated to his duty position.
But until then, he has been grossly compromised and is no longer fit to continue to serve as a policer officer, especially one entrusted with such a very high profile position as Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of the Inspector General of Police Task Force. Such a position requires optimum integrity and unblemished candor, both of which a suspect in a crime whose warrant of arrest has been issued, no longer possess. Abba Kyari should be suspended immediately or placed on leave from the Nigeria Police Force until the final resolution of the matter. Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari is now a shame of Nigeria as the Nigeria underbelly of police corruption has gone international because of him. It is shame.
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Christy 'Apena' Essien-Igbokwe , the wife of Jegede Shokoya of the New Masquerade and Nigeria's lady of songs is dead; she was 51years old. Although her family claimed that "brief Illness" killed her like so many Nigerians; Icheoku retorts that it was most likely AKwa Ibom voodoo and remote control that was used to arrest her. It is on record that she had fallen out with the governor of her native Akwa Ibiom State and have been having a relentless war for political turf with the governor? So who knows whether she was sacrificed to Ekpe cult or even Alusi-Okija as an offal; afterall African science is still very much alive and portent. May her soul rest in peace.
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