A prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, over alleged non-disclosure of assets, told the Federal High Court in Abuja, that investigations uncovered over N200 million in Kyari’s accounts, exceeding his official earnings.
The witness, a Chief Investigator with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmed Yero, disclosed that the money found in Kyari’s account was traced through his Bank Verification Number (BVN) linked to 12 accounts, 10 of which were active.
According to Yero, his team was assigned on February 14, 2022, to investigate the defendant’s financial activities under the NDLEA’s Directorate of Assets & Financial Investigation.
Yero noted that Kyari had initially declared only three bank accounts, but forensic analysis of his BVN records, obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), revealed he owned and operated 10 active bank accounts, including domiciliary accounts in Dollars, Euros, and Pounds Sterling.
“One of the accounts is a salary account through which the 1st defendant (Kyari) received salaries and allowances from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF),” Yero said.
Yero who’s testifying as the ninth prosecution witness (PW-9), said added that NDLEA analyzed Kyari’s bank records for 16 years, from 2006 to 2022, and discovered that deposits into his accounts significantly exceeded his known police earnings.
The NDLEA investigator further disclosed that funds tagged as “operational funds” were wired directly from the CBN into Kyari’s accounts. However, a substantial portion of these funds was transferred to family members and associates.
“We calculated everything the defendant earned in salaries and other entitlements and compared it with inflows into his account. Our analysis showed that over ₦200 million was received beyond what he should have earned officially,” Yero testified.
The witness told the court that Kyari refused to provide a written statement to the NDLEA, insisting that he would only explain himself in court.