Abba Kyari prays court for bail over alleged threat to life in Kuje Prison

Abba Kyari prays court for bail over alleged threat to life in Kuje Prison

[FILES] Suspended Nigerian Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari (middle) appeared at the Federal High Court over offences of illegal cocaine dealing at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Nigeria on March 7, 2022. – A high-profile Nigerian police commander once dubbed the country’s “super cop” pleaded not guilty to drug smuggling charges on Monday a month after he was arrested in spectacular fall from grace.

Abba Kyari, the suspended DCP, on Thursday, approached a Federal High Court for another bail plea.

Kyari and three of his co-defendants, through their counsel, urged Justice Emeka Nwite to admit them to a bail because their lives in the Kuje Correctional Centre where there are being remanded were unsafe.

At a resumed hearing, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, counsel to Kyari and suspended ACP Sunday Ubia, informed that an application seeking for bail for the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th defendants had been filed and served on the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

He said the application became necessary due to the nature of the work the defendants had done in the course of policing the country.

Ikpeazu said the defendants are being remanded with criminals in the correctional centre, who through them, their arrests were made possible.

The senior lawyer said their lives are at risk, hence, the need for their bail.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that four suspended police officers including ACP Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Insp Simon Agirigba and Insp. John Nuhu, listed as 2nd to 5th defendant respectively, are being charged by the  NDLEA for alleged drug offence alongside Kyari.

However, while Kyari, Ubia, Agirigba and Nuhu (1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th defendants), sought bail over the alleged threat to their lives, ASP Bawa James, who is the 3rd defendant in the matter, did not.

Meanwhile, counsel for the prosecution (NDLEA), Sunday Joseph, opposed the request that the bail plea be taken, insisting that the matter was scheduled for review of the facts of the 6th and 7th defendants who pleaded guilty to the counts preferred against them.

NAN reports that Chibunna Umeibe and Emeka Ezenwanne (6th and 7th defendants) were the two alleged drug traffickers that were arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu.

Umeibe and Ezenwanne, had pleaded guilty to five, six and seven counts preferred against them and are being remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre.