A Video footage where suspected drug smugglers under interrogation linked high profile NDLEA officials to 25kg drug smuggled into the country via Ethiopia from Brazil has emerged online.
7 min read
A Video footage where suspected drug smugglers under interrogation linked high profile NDLEA officials to 25kg drug smuggled into the country via Ethiopia from Brazil has emerged online.
A press conference organised by Mr Femi Babademi, the Special Adviser on Media to the NDLEA chairman, Mohammed Buba Marwa, had accused Kyari and four others of being members of drug syndicate.
The police also issued a statement signed by Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the Police’s Deputy Force Relations Office afterwards saying the five police men tampered with exhibits in a case of illicit drug trafficking.The police said after investigations, it was able to identify two international drug couriers identified as Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus, who were arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu on the 19th of January, 2022 upon their arrival from Addis Ababa aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight ET917.
The two suspects were subsequently transferred to the NDLEA on the 25th of January, 2022.
However, investigations have shown that only four police officers from IRT were involved in the arrest of the suspects and the 25kg of the drugs.
It was reliably gathered that, the four police officers ran into trouble for being unable to get compensation from NDLEA for the whistleblower, as always the case, having promised him he will receive full compensation, an agreement the whistleblower undertook to reveal the arrival of drugs into the country.
The head of the four police officers who went to Enugu for the operation subsequently contacted Abba Kyari if he knew any senior officer in the NDLEA so he could help get the whistleblower his compensation.
Kyari, acting on the fact that the four officers were under his control and moving to assist, accepted and called one of them, who was seen in the car with him.
They met two times according to the reliable source, with the second meeting showing a photograph of Kyari standing near the NDLEA officer’s SUV.
According to the source, the NDLEA had in their custody the two suspects and the drugs since January 22th but never proceeded with the case and only came out with the news declaring Kyari wanted in their bid to absolve the agency’s men, who are complicit in the deal. But a reliable source at the Police headquarters revealed that Kyari alongside three other agents of the IRT were called into the police headquarters on Saturday to enable the police carry out its investigation.
The police kept the four men until Monday to the full know of the NDLEA, according to the source.
He added that Kyari and the three others were actually with the police at the force headquarters when the NDLEA declared them wanted, raising concern about the motive of declaring people ostensibly under custody wanted.
While the NDLEA acted what a source described as a script, they were unaware of the videos of interrogation that had been kept secret by the IRT officers who after arresting the two drug pedlars made a video of the proceeding.
As if the police men knew, the videos of their interrogation with the two drug suspect were not released to the NDLEA but kept secret because the suspected had indicted officers of the NDLEA, the source who released the video explained.
The agency’s men both in Enugu Airport and Abuja allegedly became angry at Kyari’s intervention and his bid seeking compensation for the whistleblower and moved to accuse him of being a part of the drug syndicate, he added.
“Kyari did not know anything about the drugs. He did not take part in their arrest. He didn’t even hear it. He was only called by the head of the team to help use his good office to talk to the NDLEA senior officer so that the whistleblower can be paid.
“It’s what the police do. All serious security agencies do that in Nigeria and across the world. It’s even a policy of this government to use whistle-blower. “The NDLEA officers in Enugu Airport got angry and contacted their colleagues in Abuja. They became uncomfortable with the demand to be compensated and decided to act funny.
“Do you know the videos showing Kyari and the NDLEA officer in the car is not complete? They tempered with the video. Let them show complete video and what they discussed.
“The money was handed over to Kyari to give to his men to compensate the whistleblower but he said no, he was not interested. That was why he handed over the money to him. It was a clear set up but if the complete video is released, how the money was given to Kyari would be revealed,” the source said.
The source who revealed the video of the interrogation queried why would the police interrogate the drug pedlars and then turn around to sell the drugs? Why would they hand over the men to the NDLEA if they wanted to sell the drugs?”
Below is the full transcripts of the three separate videos of 2:04 seconds each, showing police interrogating the two men who brought in the controversial drugs to Enugu Airport.
Suspect 1: They said they will give …at the transit Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, transit. Then, When I see ….I will snap picture with it which they will use to do other things they will do for airport.
Police: Who will snap you the picture?
Suspect 1: I will ask anybody around to snap me at the airport. You are free to ask anybody to snap you. They do not know what you are doing. That’s how we do it. Police: When you snapped a picture, do you forward it to someone or you keep it for yourself or what is the purpose for snapping the picture?
Suspect 1: I will forward it to the person who gave me this stuff, cocaine. I will give it to them, send it to them (NDLEA).
After I snapped the picture, I will send it to the person who gave me this stuff (cocaine), he’s the person that will use it for other things which I do not know but for me, I think this NDLEA, they will give it to. Because when you come to the airport, they will get your passport.
Police: Which people are the people you are calling, the people you send your pictures?
Suspect 1: Like this one that gave me this stuff
Police: Which people are the people you are calling, because you did not pronounce their names clearly.
Which people, is it national drug law…NDLEA, which people because you did not pronounce their names very well
Suspect 1: The truth of the matter is that …
Second suspect brought in for interrogation…
Police: Come closer, come closer, tell them…How did you manage the security at the airport?
Suspect 2: If we want to move from Addis, we snap picture and send to the person.
Police: Which picture? Your picture?
Suspect 2: Yes
Police: To which person?
Suspect 2: The person that sent us. So when we send the picture, the person will now send it to NDLEA, national drug law enforcement agency. They will send it to them.
So when we get to their point, when we get to their check point, they will now know …
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Police: That you are the people…
Suspect 2: Yes
Police: From there they will clear you? So do they normally search you?
Suspect 2: They will open the bag and do their thing and cover it again at the airport.
Police 2: Meaning do they search you properly or they do not search you ?
Suspect 2: No, not properly.
Police: Even if they see anything, do they say anything?
Suspect 2: They will just close it because they know that we are coming.
Suspect 1: After I dropped at airport at Enugu, I took night bus to Lagos. When I got to Lagos …my phone. I told him to come to get him at Akor (sic) bridge when I got there. He gave me the money, N400,000 that’s what he gave me that day
Police: What did you use to do with the money?
I used the money to pay some of my debts I am owing people, then i used the remaining one to take care of my family.
Police: Now this drugs, this cocaine that you normally bring into the country. Do you know the consequences, the effect
Suspect 1: I know all the effect
Police: What’s the effect?
Suspect 1: I know it’s illegal
Police: What does it do people, does it make them hopeless or what does it do to them. I did not see …if they use it
Police: What are they using it for?
Suspect 1: Cocaine, as they told me, they use it to do some drugs, some are smoking it ..
Police: Did you smoke it?
Suspect 1: I don’t smoke it.
Police: Why?
Suspect 1: I don’t like it . I don’t even smoke cigar
Police: Why don’t you like it?
Suspect 1: Because I know it’s not good for health.
Police: How do you people normally break the security at the airport, the NDLEA, the police at the airport
Suspect 1: At first because why I equally accept this thing is because of the situation of things.
The source said things went awry because the NDLEA officers in Enugu and Abuja had been compromised in their bid to sell the drugs, share the money among themselves and embarked on blaming its sister agency, the police.
“They wanted a fall guy. They wanted to deflect attention from their illicit deal. Nothing more,” the source who handed over the videos said.
Watch the video below:
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