Former super cop Abba Kyari applies for bail after being attacked by inmates at Kuje Prison

FORMER head of the Nigeria Police Force's Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Assistant Police Commissioner Abba Kyari has narrowly escaped being killed at Kuje Prison in Abuja when angry inmates tried to lynch him.

Mr Kyari is being detained after he was arrested in February by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), over his alleged links with an international drug cartel. On July 31, 2021, Mr Kyari was suspended by the Police Service Commission after the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US indicted him for his alleged role in a $1m scam perpetrated by Internet fraudster Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi.

According to the beleaguered policeman, he was attacked in Kuje Prison on May 4 when about 190 inmates descended on him for allegedly prosecuting them despite collecting bribes while in office. As a result, he has now filed a fresh bail plea before a federal high court and the authorities are already looking to move him to State Security Service (SSS) facility.

In his latest plea, Mr Kyari and three of his co-defendants urged Justice Emeka Nwite to admit them to bail because their lives were unsafe at the Kuje Correctional Centre, where they are being remanded. Their lawyer Onyechi Ikpeazu, said the application became necessary due to the nature of the work the defendants had done in the course of policing the country.

Mr Ikpeazu said the defendants are being remanded with criminals in the correctional centre, who through them, their arrests were made possible. The other policemen seeking bail are Assistant Commissioner of Police Ubia, Inspector Simon Agirigba and Inspector John Nuhu.