Suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, has dragged the Federal Government to court to seek release from the custody of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, The PUNCH has learnt.
Kyari, in his suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/182/22, is praying the Federal High Court in Abuja to compel the NDLEA to grant him bail on health grounds, pending the hearing and determination of his fundamental right enforcement application.
Kyari through his lawyer, Cynthia Ikena, claimed to be suffering from diabetes and hypertension and asked the court to order the NDLEA to release him.
But Justice Inyang Ekwo noted that the suit contained some averments that would require the response of the Federal Government.
“Upon studying the process of the Applicant and averments in support thereon, I am of the opinion that the respondent should be put on notice,” the judge held.
Justice Ekwo ordered that all the relevant processes should be served on FG which was cited as the sole respondent and adjourned the case till February 24 for hearing.
The anti-narcotics agency had on February 14, 2022, indicted Kyari, ex-head of the police Intelligence Response Team, in alleged drug trafficking and related offences.
The NDLEA said Kyari, the suspended IRT head, belonged to a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline.
The anti-narcotics agency also said Kyari contacted one of its officers in Abuja and struck a deal to secure the release of a total of 25kg seized cocaine and offered $61,400 bribe to NDLEA officers who played along until his arrest.
The IGP in a statement had corroborated the NDLEA’s findings, saying incontrovertible evidence indicted Kyari in the drug crimes.
The NDLEA had also said it would charge the cop and four others to court.
The police commission had suspended Kyari on July 31, 2021, after the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States indicted the “super cop” for his alleged role in a $1m scam allegedly perpetrated by alleged international Internet fraudster Ramon Abbas, aka, Hushpuppi and five others.
The FBI had said Hushpuppi paid Kyari N8m or $20,600 for the arrest and detention of a “co-conspirator,” Chibuzo Vincent.
The United States Attorney’s Office at the Central District of California had declared Kyari wanted but the Nigerian government has yet to extradite him to face prosecution in the US before the cop’s NDLEA ordeal.
Details later…
-PUNCH
