Counsel to Abba Kyari said his client was remanded with criminals whom Kyari’s Intelligence Response Team had arrested.
Suspected drug baron, Abba Kyari, has asked a Federal High Court in Abuja to grant him bail because his continuous stay in Kuje prison poses a threat to his life.
Abba Kyari is the disgraced deputy commissioner of police (DCP) and head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Nigeria Police Force who was caught on tape negotiating a drug deal with an undercover narcotics agent.
Recall that a federal high court had on March 28 remanded Kyari and four others at the Kuje correctional centre after their bail application was refused.
At the resumed court session today, Kyari and three of his co-defendants brought another application seeking bail on the ground of threat to their lives in Kuje prison.
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Lawyer to Kyari, Onyechi Ikpeazu, who also doubles as the counsel to another suspected accomplice of Kyari, Sunday Ubia, said the fresh application was necessitated due to the threats against the defendants at the Kuje prison.
He said his clients were remanded with criminals whom Kyari’s team had arrested.
He prayed the court to grant the application
However, Bawa James, the third defendant who is an assistant superintendent of police, did not file any application for bail.
Sunday Joseph, counsel for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), objected to the application for bail.
He said the hearing was originally slated for the review of facts of the case relating to two self-confessed drug traffickers, Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwane, who was linked to the suspended DCP.
Umeibe and Ezenwanne, the 6th and 7th defendants in the suit marked FHC/ABJ/57/2022, were arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu while attempting to smuggle cocaine into the country.
Upon arraignment on March 7, they pleaded guilty to the charge.
Kyari had argued that revisiting the facts of the case or punishing Umeibe and Ezenwanne while his trial was still proceeding would be harmful to him.
He also called the court’s attention to the fact that both defendants were referenced in certain counts in the accusation against him and the other accused cops.
The court had, in a ruling delivered on April 28, dismissed Kyari’s objections and held that it would go ahead to review the facts of the case against Umeibe and Ezenwanne.
On Thursday, Kyari and his police co-defendants said they had gone to the court of appeal to challenge the ruling.
They further filed a motion for the court to temporarily halt the trial pending the outcome of the appeal, an application that was opposed by the prosecution which accused the defendants of attempting to stay proceeding in a criminal matter.
Emeka Nwite, the presiding judge, adjourned the case to June 14 to hear the defendants’ fresh application for bail.
