Following the indictment of suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Abba Kyari, by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the fraud case involving Abass Ramon, popularly known as Hushpuppi, the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has petitioned the US government, demanding fairness in the case.
In the petition signed by CNG’s spokesman, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, on Sunday, the group expressed worry over the trajectory around Kyari’s case, urging the US not to discountenance Nigeria’s ability to protect Kyari’s legal rights.
The petition, as seen by Ripples Nigeria, reads:
The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), have noticed a number of fundamental procedural lapses in the conduct of the investigation, which tend not only to threaten the sovereign status of Nigeria, but also infringe on its citizen’s rights and civil liberties; threatens the rule of law and confronts the humanity and civilization that the people United States of America stands for.
“We also note that the FBI might have breached another fundamental criminal justice procedure by not according Mr Kyari the benefit of being heard before going ahead with the purported indictment by an American Court in the US for an offence purportedly committed in Nigeria, triable under Nigerian laws, by Nigerian courts and on Nigerian land.
A breach of decorum and the negligence of the procedure might have also occurred when the FBI hurriedly published the purported indictment online without first intimating the Nigerian authorities and hearing the accused’s case.
“Let it also be clear that there is a mounting public concern that the action of the FBI could suggest that the US might willfully be participating in Nigeria’s current political chase game and playing the card of the gang-up of regional and ethnic propagandists against northern interests.
“It is therefore important that our friends in the US understand what a destabilised Nigeria will mean to the entire sub-Saharan region.
“As the most populous country on the continent and one that continues to influence peace and stability across the sub-continent, any breakdown of law and order will further make dangerous the situation in terms of regional security, international cohesion, migration and other challenges that will affect Africa and beyond.
It is important that the US engages protocol and path of justice in the matter of Abba Kyari, who until now, enjoys huge repute as a super cop by all sections of the country. But it is groundless insinuation to suggest that US is playing the card of anti-north tendency.”
