Court grants Abba Kyari bail

The Federal High Court, Abuja Division, has admitted a former Commander of the Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria police, Abba Kyari, to bail after over two years in detention.

Mr Kyari and his co-defendants face eight charges of conspiracy, illegal dealing in cocaine, importation of cocaine and obstruction.

The trial judge, Emeka Nwite, had on two occasions denied Mr Kyari and his co-defendants bail on the grounds that they failed to provide cogent reasons to warrant bail.

But on Tuesday, reprieve came Mr Kyari’s way when the judge granted him bail to enable him to attend his mother’s funeral rites in Borno State.

In granting Mr Kyari’s temporary release from the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja where he is being held, the judge said his bail must not exceed two weeks.

Background

Mr Kyari, a suspended deputy commissioner of police, is standing trial on cocaine-related charges alongside four members of his former police unit, the Intelligence Response Unit (IRT).

The four co-defendants are Sunday Ubua, an assistant commissioner of police; Bawa James, an assistant superintendent of police; Simon Agirgba, an inspector, and John Nuhu, also an inspector.

Two civilians, Chibunna Umeibe and Emeka Ezenwanne, who were arrested over the charges at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, Enugu State, were also charged as the 6th and 7th defendants. The court jailed the two men for two years each in June 2022 after pleading guilty earlier in March of the same year.

They are standing trial for alleged hard drug trafficking offences preferred against them by the NDLEA.

All seven defendants were arraigned on 7 March 2022 on eight charges of conspiracy, illegal dealing in cocaine, importation of cocaine and obstruction.

Mr Kyari and the four other police officers pleaded not guilty, setting the stage for the commencement of their trial.

Charges

NDLEA prosecutors accused Mr Kyari and the four IRT members of dealing in 21.35kg of cocaine between 19 and 25 January 2022, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under section 11(c) of the NDLEA Act.

In one of the charges, the anti-narcotic agency alleged that Mr Kyari and the four IRT operatives tampered with 21.35kg of cocaine by removing 17.55 kg of it and “substituting same with some other substance”.

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The offence is contrary to and punishable under section 14(b) of the NDLEA Act.

The prosecutors also accused Mr Kyari, in a count which features only him as the sole defendant, of attempting to obstruct the NDLEA and its authorised officers by offering $61,400 to a senior anti-narcotics operative as an inducement to prevent the testing of the 17.55kg of cocaine.

In three of the counts, Messrs Umeibe and Ezenwanne were accused of importing 21.35kg of cocaine into Nigeria via the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, Enugu State, on 19 January 2022.

Apart from the narcotic charges, Mr Kyari has pending fraud charges in the United States and an extradition suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja.