Suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, has dragged the Federal Government to court seeking release from the custody of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
Kyari, in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/182/22, is asking the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to compel the NDLEA to grant him bail on health grounds, pending the hearing and determination of his fundamental right enforcement application.
According to the suit filed by Cynthia Ikene, counsel to Kyari, the suspended police officer said he is suffering from diabetes and hypertension and asked the court to order the NDLEA to release him.
However, Justice Inyang Ekwo, after perusing the process filed before him said 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 the Federal Government which was cited as the sole respondent in the suit and adjourned the matter till February 24 for hearing.
It would be recalled that the anti-narcotics agency had on February 14, 2022, indicted Kyari, ex-head of the police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, in alleged drug trafficking and related offences.
Following the indictment, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, subsequently handed over Kyari to the NDLEA for further investigation and prosecution over his alleged links in drug trafficking after the NDLEA released damning photo and video evidence to nail Kyari.
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 the 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.