By Taiwo Adisa
(Published in the Sunday Tribune, February 2, 2025)
Lagos is a special location and a special city in Nigeria. Apart from being the former Nigerian capital, it is the nation’s commercial capital. Eko o gba gbere-Lagos doesn’t take nonsense, is a common parlance on the streets of that ever bursting city and its metropolis.
When you are on the streets of Lagos, you must be perpetually alert from thieves and pickpockets. The shouts of thief would reverberate in the crowd to the extent that everyone easily loses sight of the real thief. As the would-be victim shouts thief! The suspect echoes the same and starts pointing at an imaginary thief ahead of him. He keeps running and in the melee, the ever charged crowd could just pounce on one “ara oke,” who possibly was looking lost at the deadly drama. Pronto, jungle justice is meted out!
For pick pocket, the shout of thief, thief is an escape route and in several instances, the crowd descends on the ‘ara oke.’ Many had died that way, while a few had escaped with scars of severe beating. Getting justice in such a scenario is a delicate game, one which even the gods would have to tread carefully.
Nigeria’s inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun and the Police Service Commission (PSC) are right now faced with such scenario as they seek to settle the riddle involving the suspended crime-fighting Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Force Intelligence Department (FID) Abduyari Lafia. The AIG and some members of his team had a petition written against them by a Lagos-based lawyer in a case the team appeared to have busted. It is like what Fela Anikulapo said in his song You be thief/I no be thief/You be robber/I no be robber…at the end he said, somebody has carried something that belongs to another person. A Yoruba proverb says if you don’t catch a thief on the wrist, he could turn around to accuse the farm owner of stealing. And that’s the riddle the police authorities must unravel in this case. The authorities must get to the roots of who is the thief and who is the farm owner. They must also answer questions as to why a report that exonerated the AIG was being kept in the cooler, and the man had to be suspended weeks after the submission of that report.
The Police Service Commission (PSC) in a statement on January 17, 2025 announced the suspension and interdiction of the AIG Abduyari Lafia, of the Force Intelligence Department (FID), Abuja, with effect from January 9. According to the PSC in its January 9, 2025 letter, referenced AP:41804/FS/FHQ/ABJ/VOL.IV/3, the AIG was asked to proceed on suspension immediately.
Though the commission and the police authorities did not spell out the list of his offence, what was known is that the matter has link with a petition dated April 30, 2024, by a Lagos-based lawyer, Victor Ukut Esq.
Ukut’s petition, sent to the IGP and the Minister of Police affairs, indicated several allegations. Its content looks like a paradox in itself as he frontally accuse the AIG and his team of several offences. The petition carried the title: “Petition of robbery Against AIG Abduyari Shuaya’u Lafia and other Police officers at Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) and stealing the sum of Six Hundred and ninety-two million, one hundred and twenty-two thousand Naira from Woobs Resources Limited’s Bank Accounts With Fidelity Bank PLC ; “RE: Complaint Against AIG Abduyari Shuyau Lafia, ACP Mohammed Lawan, Abuse of office and Police Power by officers and officials of Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) and request for the Police service Commission to investigate and intervene; “Re: Petition of forgery of official records/documents of the Nigerian Army and Woobs Resources Limited (Concessionaire to the Nigerian Army) to Obtain Architectural Practicing License looting and obtaining money by false pretences by Mr. James Uchechukwu Onyemenam.”
Though Abduyari is a well known name in the security circles, as a result of his involvement in key investigations that shook not just the financial world, but the political scene as well, his suspension, nearly a year after that petition is raising unprecedented dust.
As our elders say, there is no smoke without a brewing fire underneath. The suspension of the AIG has been linked to a web of conspiracies, petitions and investigations, especially the one involving a Lagos-based company which Ukut and others are key players.
The title of the petition above immediately caught my attention. Having come across Abduyari as a gentle but tough investigator, who once busted a crime of more than N100 billion, which we cannot discuss the details here because, as the lawyers would say, it is sub judice. I had reported instances where the officer had rejected attempts by interested parties to bribe him with hundreds of millions and so, it was incongruous to see the same man accused by a lawyer of “armed robbery,” “stealing” and the like.
But as far as the instant case was concerned, a case of alleged forgery of a company’s documents and some missing money to the tune of N32 billion was reported to Abduyari and his team, and upon their intervention, the sum of N1 billion was recovered, while a promise to pay N18 billion in a short while was secured. And that was the stage petitions and court cases crept in. The AIG was asked to hands off the file and was later slammed with the three-step petition as mentioned above.
After a series of back and forth of investigations by the police, the Special Enquiry Bureau (SEB) of the Force Criminal Investigation Department, Garki, Abuja eventually came up with detailed report which not only exonerated AIG Abduyari and his team but also called for investigation and possible prosecution of the petitioners.
The SEB report is titled “Re: Request for Certified True Copy of Police Investigation Report Pursuant to Section 1(1), (2) an (3) of the Freedom of information Act, 2011… Re: Case of criminal Conspiracy, Robbery, forgery and abuse of office.” It was dated December 16, 2024 and signed by CP Emmanuel A. Aina, psc+, Commissioner of Police, Special Enquiry Bureau (SEB) Force Criminal Investigation Department, Area 10, Garki Abuja.
The report states thus in paragraph XXXVIII: “That there is no evidence linking AIG Abduyari Shuayau Lafia and the Investigating Police Officers with Robbery, Forgery or abuse of office as alleged by the petitioner.”
Paragraph XXXIX, also stated: “That there is no evidence showing transfer into the account of James Onyemenam or AIG Abduyari Shuayau Lafia as alleged.”
The report claimed that rather than indict the AIG and his team, “a prima Facie case of giving false information has been established against the petitioner.”
It should therefore come as a surprise that some three weeks after the police authorities received a report which cleaned its officers of the allegations by a lawyer, the authorities, would rather suspend the senior officer instead of making the report public and apportioning blame as appropriate. It looks like Abduyari the hunter is becoming the haunted.
His suspension raises so many questions. Since the police authorities commissioned the SEB team that probed Abduyari and his team and the CTC report with reference CB: 4099/X/FHQ/ABJ/SEB/T3/VOL.5/2, was already in its custody since December 16, 2024, one would ask, why subject the man to suspension/interdiction after the receipt of the SEB report? What other evidence does the police need to prove the innocence of its officers against the lawyer’s petition? When such weighty allegations are made against police officers, should the public not know the report of the investigations? If a policeman is at fault, no one would beg for such. In fact, our people usually scorn at the cliché ‘police is your friend’. Even if it is the norm that a policeman, when accused of any offence, would have to take the opposite direction of our law-guilty until proven innocent, the fact remains that the PSC and the IG have a duty to give vent to an investigative report carried out under strict directive and supervision of the authorities. When delay at getting justice persists, no one can stop human imagination from running riot. The people can talk of suppression of evidence, conspiracy or even collusion with criminals. Force spokesman, Muyiwa Adejobi had to issue one such denial on December 4, 2024, in the case of suspects who smuggled bank notes from the CBN.
But with reports at my disposal, the AIG in question is also not leaving matters lying low. A report of the Magistrate Court, sitting in Wuse Zone 6, Abuja in a case with file number CR/77/24, dated December 24, 2024, indicated he had filed a direct criminal complaint against his accusers. The complaint is titled: “Direct Criminal Complaint pursuant to Sections 87 and 88(1) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015; Sections 158 (1)&(2), 364, 292 and 293 of the Penal Code Act, Laws of Northern Nigeria and Section 24 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention,ETC), Act, 2015 (As amended) 2024 and under the Inherent Jurisdiction of this honourable court.”
In the nine-paragraph affidavit, Abduyari claimed that Ukut had committed infractions against the Penal Code, and committed perjury by accusing him of taking a N5 billion bribe to bail the managing director of Fidelity Bank in his petition to the police authorities.
“We urge you to most respectfully therefore use your good office to order investigation into our complaint with a view to bringing the respondent to book where he is found culpable, with a view to sanitising our society,” Abduyari had written in his petition to the Magistrate.
If the Police report has cleared the AIG and he is equally seeking the face of the law to further clean himself, the best the IGP and the PSC should do is to come clean, transparently so, and let no cobweb be hidden inside the cupboard.
