by Segun Adewole
Nigerians on Twitter have said the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP Abba Kyari, didn’t show smartness when he edited and deleted his rebuttal to the Federal Bureau of Investigation which indicted him in the fraud case against an Instagram celebrity, Ramon Abbas aka Hushpuppi.
Kyari had published the rebuttal on Facebook after an FBI affidavit revealed that he helped Hushpuppi jail an associate who was trying to thwart the fraud being perpetrating against a Qatari businessman.
According to the suspended DCP, he only arrested one Chibuzo at the behest of Hushpuppi who claimed the young man threatened to kill his family in Nigeria.
He said it was later discovered that such wasn’t the case, adding that “they are long-time friends who have money issues between them, hence we released the suspect on bail.”
Kyari who denied receiving any money from Hushpuppi said the Instagram celebrity “saw some of my native clothes and caps on my social media page and he said he likes them and he was connected to the person selling the clothes and he sent about N300k directly to the person’s account.”
A few days later, Kyari edited the part about the N330,000 to reflect that his office helped Hushpuppi to recover N8 million for a friend.
The suspended DCP later deleted the entire post, an action that generated reactions from Nigerians on Twitter who claim he didn’t display intelligence despite heading the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
Reacting, journalist Gimba Kakanda tweeted, “As at last night, DCP Abba Kyari had edited his Facebook statement a record 12 times. He edited out his role as a Kaftan plug for Hushpuppi and wrote that he’s a mere debt collector; a more incriminating role. This morning, he deleted the entire post. This man isn’t smart at all.
He added, “Abba Kyari’s serial editing of his Facebook post to change a story already trending is telling. This joker headed an intelligence unit in the police force. He’s shown a lack of capability to reason cleverly and measure the gravity of his actions, which his former office required.”
Blogger Japhet Omojuwa reacted to Kakanda’s post, saying, “People need to learn that at times like this, whether you are guilty or not, log off the internet. Sleep if you can. Then return with a clearer head. You can’t deal with a mess by creating more mess. Except creating another mess works for you (works sometimes). Not in this case.”
According to activist Aisha Yesufu, “Abba Kyari’s intelligence is what is heading our intelligence unit and you wonder why terrorists, criminals, kidnappers and co are always winning.”
@DemolaRewaju said, “Been reading his flimsy defences and if Abba Kyari is a supercop of the Nigeria Police, then the entire force is truly an outfit of misfits. Abba Kyari by his defences is clearly dull, dumb and dense – a mockery of the word ‘supercop’ which must now take a Nigerian meaning.”
@olorunwababs said, “Abba Kyari should understand that Facebook shows edit history and in this age of screenshot journalism, there’s no way he’ll escape scrutiny if he attempts to play smart.”
Deleted post: Abba Kyari not smart despite heading intelligence unit -Tweeps
