ROUND UP: Abba Kyari, Maina…Top Nigerian Criminal Suspects with History of Illness

On Monday, Cynthia Ikena, the lawyer of embattled ‘super cop’, Abba Kyari, told Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja that her client is a diabetic and hypertensive patient.

She asked the court to release the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police on bail due to Poor health, adding that he needs to travel abroad for proper treatment.

He also asked the court to compel the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to grant him bail pending the hearing and determination of his fundamental right enforcement application.

It would be recalled that the NDLEA arrested Kyari on Feb. 14, 2022, for alleged links to drug-related crimes.

Prior to that, he was suspended for his alleged involvement in a series of illegal and unethical dealings with popular alleged fraudster, Ramon Abbas a.k.a. Hushpuppi who is currently facing charges of money laundering levelled against him by the United States Government last year.

Kyari was regarded as a patriotic policeman and was widely celebrated for his role in ensuring safety in the nation. Some of his achievements are the arrest of Chukwudi Onuamadike, a kidnapper known as Evans, in 2017 and the arrest of Taraba’s wanted kidnapper, Hamisu Wadume in 2019 among others.

For three years in a row (2012, 2013 and 2014), he got the police medal and the House of Representatives gave him an award of outstanding performance in the Nigerian Police in 2020.

Many Nigerians are, however, surprised that the same Kyari who said in 2017 that at the time of Evans’ arrest, the kidnapper gave him $2 million which he rejected got enmeshed in multi-million dollars corruption allegations.

In what appears like a norm in Nigeria, Kyari, like other top Nigerian criminal suspects, attempted to delay the ‘justice system’ by seeking bail on health grounds. Unfortunately for him, the court denied his request.

In this report, POLITICS NIGERIA looks at some previous cases of corruption where top officials have either collapsed or sought for bail on health grounds during the process of questioning, trial or detention.

Abdulrasheed Maina

The former Chairman of the defunct Pension Reform Task Team, Abdulrasheed Maina on Dec. 20, 2020 collapsed in court while standing trial on a 12-count charge of fraud and money laundering before a Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.

The incident occured weeks after he was extradited from the Niger Republic after he jumped bail and escaped the country.

Maina’s ill-health has been a major reason for his prolonged trial. In 2019, a medical expert testified to his inability to appear before the court due to health reasons and at another instance, his lawyer said Maina was bleeding during a court sitting.

Olisa Metuh

Upon the resumption of his trial for alleged money laundering, the former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Olisa Metuh, collapsed in court on May 21, 2018.

The politician has since been facing a N400 million money laundering charge, and had on several occasions been on admission in various hospitals in Nigeria.

He is said to be having spinal cord ailment for which doctors recommended surgery as definitive treatment and referred him to a London hospital.

Dino Melaye

Accused of culpable homicide, Police on Jan. 5, 2019, arrested Dino Melaye, a former Kogi West Senator but on arrival at the police headquarters in Abuja, he appeared very weak and could not walk by himself.

In the blink of an eye, he slumped as he was breathing heavily. He was said to be asthmatic as a female assistant brought out an inhaler and gave him a couple of shots through the mouth.

Before then, Dino, who likened himself to the Biblical Elijah, vowed not to honour the police invitation, saying that the security operatives had perfected a plot to inject him with poison.

Diezani Alison-Madueke

The flamboyant former Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, has long been under investigation over allegations of bribery and money laundering.

Despite embezzling huge sums of money while serving as oil minister for Africa’s biggest crude producer from 2010-2015, she is said to be having breast cancer and undergoing treatment in Britain.

Sambo Dasuki

Sambo Dasuki was charged to court with illegal possession of arms and for stealing $2 billion meant to facilitate the purchase of weapons for the Nigerian military to fight Boko Haram in 2015.

Later, Ahmed Raji (SAN), his lawyer, pleaded that his client’s passport be released to allow him to travel for three weeks for treatment of his “budding cancer.”

When the matter was closing in on him, he too resorted to illness. A columnist, Bayo Olupohunda argued in 2016 that “Dasuki’s sickness is more of a planned, coached, and rehearsed excuse than a coincidence. It’s a cock-and-bull story!”

Ibrahim Lamorde

Upon his emergence as president in 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari, sacked Ibrahim Lamorde as chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Later that year, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions said it was investigating Lamorde over allegations of diversion of stolen funds amounting to over N1 trillion, recovered over a period of time from looters of public treasury.

In November 2015, he was flown abroad over an undisclosed ailment.