[2] As an army officer, Kyari had survived a mutiny by a battalion under his command in the aftermath of the July 1966 Nigerian counter-coup.

Kyari also attended the British Army's Mons Officer Cadet School, Aldershot from October 1959 to March 1960.

[4] Major Kyari was given command of the Nigerian Army's 5th Battalion in September 1966 following the January coup and July counter-coup, which was based in the northern provinces of the country.

On 1 October 1966 the men of the battalion, the soldiers primarily being from the north, mutinied whilst on parade and being addressed by Kyari.

[3] During the outbreak of violence against the Igbo people in Northern and Central Nigeria in 1966, Abba Kyari assisted Igbo soldiers in escaping from Kaduna, including Major Samuel Ogbemudia, who later was appointed Governor of Mid-West State in September 1967 following the state's liberation from secessionist Biafran forces.