by Alexander O. Onukwue

There is a video on the internet of a man being carried shoulder high by colleagues after the capture of the most notorious kidnapper, Evans. The man has been identified as Mr Abba Kyari.

Not the retired Army Brigadier who served as Governor of the now defunct North-Central State. Not the Harvard and Cambridge-trained Chief of Staff to the President of Nigeria who, among other things, is thought to be the head of the ‘cabal’ managing/manipulating the health status of the President.

This Abba Kyari, a new crown prince of the people, is an Assistant Commissioner of Police of the Nigerian Police, Lagos State Command, and the key figure behind the successful swoop that led to the capture of the highly notorious Evans.

Evans was apprehended on Saturday, June 10,  2017, in his mansion at Magodo Estate, Lagos, at around 1pm. The arrest, according to reports, was made by the operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) headed by Kyari.

Kyari is a graduate of Geography from the University of Maiduguri, Borno state and the youngest highest-ranking police officer in Nigeria. He was promoted to head the Inspector General’s IRT in 2016 after a string of commendable results as the head of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Lagos, as well as raids against kidnappers in Delta State, notably apprehending the captors of the mother of the former Minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonto-Iweala.

His impressive high profile missions, especially with nabbing kidnappers, has endeared him to some as the Nigerian version of 24’s Jack Bauer.

Still in his early forties, the most recent exploit of the usually clean-shaven Kyari has further enhanced his pedigree as one of the emerging bright hopes in the Nigerian Police. For an organisation that has the worst word-of-mouth reputation in the estimation of the public, the efforts of such young officers like Kyari would be the most believable instrument of re-orienting the public towards appreciating the sacrifices made by the Nigerian police.

In the event that we have more officers like Kyari in the Force, it would not be surprising to see a surge in the number of persons applying to the Police when the next recruitment is opened to the public. For the Police as an agency, his type – educated, energetic and smart – should be something of a standard. For the public, his rise would represent hope that the famed most corrupt Nigerian agency can be a place is allowed to do good work and also properly appreciated.

The other Abba Kyari, particularly the one resident at Aso Rock, may want to do something nice soon too for Nigerians to cheer.

Editor