Court dismisses Kyari’s petition to drop charges

The Federal High Court in Abuja, on Wednesday, has dismissed an appeal by Abba Kyari, a suspended deputy commissioner of police, asking to have the allegations against him dropped.

Judge Emeka Nwite dismissed the motion in his decision on the grounds that, in accordance with the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Act, the court has the only authority and jurisdiction to consider drug-related issues.

According to Judge Nwite, Section 251 of the Constitution grants the court the authority to hear the charge and render a decision.

Kyari had told the court that the charges against him were premature, insisting that the NDLEA ought to have allowed police to exhaust its internal machinery before it instituted the action.

He told the court that the Police had already started looking into the charges made against him and had produced an interim report.

Read also:‘Abba Kyari and his men tortured us to implicate Saraki in Offa robbery case,’ Witness tells court

Kyari insisted that he could only be charged in court once the police had finished their internal investigation.

He stated that, similar to how the National Judicial Council (NJC) sanctions judicial officers, the PSC has the authority to look into and punish incompetent police employees in accordance with the Police Act and Regulations.

The judge, however, asserted that the Federal High Court’s authority does not exceed that of the Police Service Commission.

Kyari, a former leader of the Nigerian Police Force’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) is being investigated by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.

He and four IRT officers — ACP Sunday J. Ubua, ASP Bawa James, Inspector Simon Agirgba, and Inspector John Nuhu — were accused of conspiring to sell 17.55kg of cocaine in front of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

They were also accused of conspiring to tamper with the 21.35kg of cocaine that had been taken from two convicted drug dealers and of trafficking cocaine.

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