BREAKING: Hushpuppi: Abba Kyari Breaks Silence After Three Weeks Amid Probe

DCP Abba Kyari returned to social media on Thursday after a three-week self-imposed hiatus, amid a police investigation into his alleged involvement in a $1.1 million Internet scam allegedly carried out by an Instagram influencer, Abbas Ramon, also known as Hushpuppi, and four others, suspended former Head of the Intelligence Response Team.

Kyari had removed his Facebook post and vanished from Blueville after the controversy over his post on August 4, 2021.

On Thursday, though, the Borno State native took to his verified Facebook profile, which has over 450,000 followers.

Kyari uploaded a 21-second TikTok video shared by Sanda Tobacco in which a cart pusher was videoed demonstrating some roller skating skills, with the videographer laughingly exclaiming, “He’s extremely crazy wallahi!”

In a document filed before the United States District Court for the Central District of California titled, ‘Criminal Complaint By Telephone Or Other Reliable Electronic Means,’ Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Andrew Innocenti claimed that Hushpuppi hired Kyari after a “co-conspirator,” Chibuzo Vincent, allegedly threatened to expose the alleged $1.1 million fraud.

Innocenti, who said he snooped through Kyari and Hushpuppi’s voice and WhatsApp messages, also claimed that the latter paid the police officer N8 million ($20,600) for Vincent’s arrest and imprisonment.

On July 29, 2021, Kyari used Facebook to document his denial of the claims, but he later erased the post after a series of edits and tweaks.

Many Nigerians were outraged and demanded harsh punishment for Kyari’s suspected collusion with a self-confessed fraudster like Hushpuppi.

To investigate the claims, Usman Baba, the Inspector-General of Police, formed a Special Investigation Panel led by Joseph Egbunike, the Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Force Criminal Investigations Department.

However, it was rumored that the Egbunike panel was excessively lenient with Kyari because of their previous friendship.

The recent declaration by the Police Service Commission that it had set up an in-house team to investigate records linked to Kyari’s indictment by the FBI could have been influenced by this development.

The commission stated that it had the ultimate word in Kyari’s investigation and that it was not obligated to accept the conclusions of the Special Investigation Panel established by the IGP to investigate the DCP’s indictment by the FBI.

The Commissioner in charge of Media in the PSC, Austin Braimoh, had said, “We are awaiting the report from the IG which is constitutional as well. The in-house panel is also working, starting from the department to the standing committee.

“We assure Nigerians that justice will be done and there is no way anyone will teleguide the commission.

“If there is a need for the FBI report, we will request for it; if it requires sending someone to the United States, we will send people there without prejudice to what the IG panel has recommended.

“We are only following the constitutional procedure; the IG must forward all his recommendations to us. We are not bound to accept the IG’s recommendations but he must forward the report to us because we are the one that would take the final decision.”