Drug trafficking charge: More trouble for Abba Kyari, as court refuses to stop trial
The court, in a ruling that was delivered by trial Justice Emeka Nwite, said it found no reason to discontinue hearing on how Kyari who hitherto headed the Police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, and four other police officers, allegedly tampered with cocaine that was seized from two convicted drug peddlers- Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne.
Justice Nwite dismissed as lacking in merit, a preliminary objection the embattled DCP filed to challenge the legal competence of the charge, which he said the court lacked the requisite jurisdiction to entertain.
The trial judge held that the court was adequately empowered by Section 251 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, to hear drug-related offences brought under the NDLEA Act.
The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, on Wednesday, rejected an application the detained Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, Abba Kyari, filed to quash the drug trafficking charge the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, preferred against him.
He dismissed Kyari’s contention that the NDLEA ought to have allowed Police to exhaust its internal investigative/disciplinary mechanisms, before it instituted the court action.
Kyari is answering to an eight-count charge the NDLEA entered against him and four members of his IRT team; ACP Sunday J. Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Insp. Simon Agirigba and Insp. John Nuhu.
He had through his lawyer, Mr. Nureni Jimoh, SAN, maintained that the charge against him was legally defective.
He told the court that the charge was premature, stressing that Police had already commenced investigation on allegations against him and issued an interim report, before the NDLEA rushed him to court.
Kyari maintained that he could only be charged to court upon conclusion of the internal investigation by the police.
He argued that the Police Service Commission, PSC, has similar powers to investigate and discipline erring police officers in line with the Police Act & Regulations, the same way the National Judicial Council, NJC, discipline judicial officers.
Consequently, he prayed the court to quash the charge and discharge him.
His application was also adopted by the other Defendants who prayed the court to terminate further proceedings in the charge against them.
However, the NDLEA, through its Director of Legal Services, Mr. Sunday Joseph, urged the court to dismiss the objection which it argued was based on fundamental misconception of the law.
The agency argued that what it brought before the court was a criminal case for the violation of laws and not a disciplinary action for the infringement of Police Service Rules. Vanguard
