Abba Kyari’s life not under threat – Prison spokesman

The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has dismissed reports that the life of Abba Kyari, the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, is in danger in its custodial facility in Kuje, Abuja.

Kyari is on trial for drug-related offences and is being remanded at the Kuje Custodial Centre.

• Fayemi: No cause for alarm over concensus APC presidential candidate
• ‘Unknown gunmen’ behind South East Violence are Igbo – Soludo

Reports have it that Kyari nearly got murdered by some aggrieved inmates, who allegedly accused him of taking bribes from them when he was in active service, while still going ahead to prosecute them.

However, the Controller-General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, said the reports of a threat to Kyari’s life were “fake news”.

In a statement signed on behalf of the CG by Francis Enobore, the national Public Relations Officer of the NSCoS, the Service said: “The story is false, reckless and mischievous.

“For the record, Abba Kyari is one of the over 800 inmates in the location where he is being kept and notable individuals including Ex-Governors, Ministers, Senators and other celebrities of higher social status have passed through the same facility without any threat to their lives.

“The authorities of the NCoS did not and has no course to request for the transfer of Abba Kyari or indeed, any inmate to any other detention centre outside its jurisdiction because there is no justification for such request.

“Abba Kyari is safe and sound and goes about his daily routine like any other inmate, unharmed.

“Those playing pranks with his detention are warned to desist from such unpatriotic acts as they may be asked, through formal litigation, to justify their statement.”

Similarly, the spokesperson for the NCoS, FCT Command, Humphrey Chukwuedo, said there is no truth in the reports, insisting that there was no threat to Kyari’s life in the custodial facility.

“There is nothing about Abba Kyari; he is not under any threat. I was with him yesterday, I was with him today before our staff started going to court. There is nothing about any threat. He’s not being threatened at all.”

When he was reminded that the suspended cop was in court seeking bail as a result of the alleged threat to his life, Chukwuedo said, “It is his right to ask for bail but his life is not being threatened.”

Kyari had, on Thursday, approached a Federal High Court for another bail plea.

Kyari and three of his co-defendants, through their counsel, urged Justice Emeka Nwite to admit them to bail because their lives in the Kuje custodial centre were unsafe.