Court approves extension of 14 days for Abba Kyari detention to allow for more investigation time of the suspected dirty cop
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
A former commander of the Nigeria Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), Abba Kyari, will spend another 14 days in detention after a Federal High Court approves the request of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) for more time.
Before he became the IRT commander, Abba Kyari was a former Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) commander in Lagos, a notorious outfit infamous for extrajudicial murder of crime suspects, and flaunting of court orders.
He had applied for bail yesterday but the court declined on the ground that his legal team did not put the NDLEA on notice. With the current decision of the court that Abba Kyari be held for another 14 days , the bail hearing will be deferred till then.
The court granted permission to the NDLEA) to hold Abba Kyari for the period to enable the agency to complete its investigation into the hard drug trafficking allegations against him.
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NDLEA said there are prima facie evidence that links the former IRT commander with a cocaine ring from Ethiopia.
Justice Zainab Abubakar issued the order for Abba Kyari’s further detention while ruling in an ex-parte application argued by the NDLEA counsel, Mike Kassa.
The NDLEA had, in the application to the court, pleaded for more time to detain Abba Kyari on the ground that the hard drug trafficking allegations against the suspect were complex and may require the agency travelling outside the shore of the country to make some clarifications.
The counsel asked the court to grant the detention extension in the interest of justice and to be fair to the suspect too through diligent investigation.
In a short ruling, Justice Abubakar ordered that Abba Kyari be detained for another 14 days.
The judge ordered that the 14 days further detention should start counting from today, February 22.
