Kyari: 31 lawyers to fight off FBI extradition request

Former IGP Intelligence Response Team commander CP Aba Kyari under investigation and likelihood of being hurled to the US on FBI request has got a groundswell of legal support.

A team of 31 lawyers from northern Nigeria on Wednesday volunteered to render free legal services to him as he defends himself in fraud case the FBI levelled against him.

The National Daily reported a cyberfraud ring whose leader Ramon Abbas, now facing 20 years American jail, came under the FBI investigation.

Kyari allegedly used his office to aid a scheme that ripped over a million dollars off a Qatari businessman in 2020.

According to the spokesperson of the legal team defending him, the lawyers were drawn across all the 19 northern states and religions.

Coalition of Northern Groups had earlier rallied support for Kyari

“We would raise questions involving the possibility of breaches to Kyari’s fundamental rights entrenched in Articles 6 and 7 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right which essentially state that every individual shall have the right to liberty and to the security of his person and every individual shall have the right to have his cause heard,” said Sunusi Bappah Salisu, in a statement.

“Also, the  United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence,” he added.

The Police Service Commission has commenced investigation after IGP Usman Baba recommended Kyari be suspended.