Drug Trafficking: Judge Dismisses Abba Kyari’s Application, Says Federal High Court Can Try Police Officers

The suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, has failed to convince the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to decline jurisdiction on the eight-count charge of drug trafficking instituted against him and others by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA.

THE WHISTLER earlier reported that Kyari and six others were on March 14 arraigned before the court by the NDLEA for tampering with the 21.35 kilogrammes of cocaine seized from suspected traffickers.

Co-defendants in the case include officers Sunday Ubia, Bawa James, Simon Agirigba, and John Nuhu.

But they pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Kari’s lawyer, Nureni Jimoh, then filed an application before the presiding judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, insisting that police authorities including the Police Service Commission (PSC) has internal mechanisms for probing allegations and punishing defaulting officers.

He maintained that his client was arraigned even when the police were not done with its own findings.

But Kyari’s position was countered by the NDLEA legal team, an agency empowered by law to arrest drug traffickers.

In his ruling on Wednesday, Justice Nwite held that no law stops the Federal High Court from presiding over drug trafficking allegations.

“The federal high court has the power to hear drug-related offences as enshrined in the constitution and the NDLEA Act.

“Section 251 of the constitution confers the court the powers to hear and determine the charge,” the judge said while dismissing the application.