Abba Kyari to court: My life unsafe in Kuje prison

DCP Abba Kyari

The suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, on Thursday, approached a Federal High Court for another bail plea, saying his life in the Kuje Correctional Centre, where he is being remanded, is unsafe.

Kyari and three of his co-defendants, through their counsel, urged Justice Emeka Nwite to admit them to bail.

At a resumed hearing, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, counsel to Kyari and suspended ACP Sunday Ubia, informed the court that an application seeking bail for the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th defendants had been filed and served on the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

He said the bail application became necessary due to the nature of the work the defendants had done in the course of policing the country.

Ikpeazu, who prayed the court to grant the application said the defendants’ lives are at risk.

The lawyer said the defendants are being remanded with criminals in the correctional centre whom Kyari’s team had arrested.

Four suspended police officers including ACP Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Insp Simon Agirigba and Insp. John Nuhu, listed as 2nd to 5th defendants respectively, are being charged by the NDLEA for alleged drug offence alongside Kyari.

However, while Kyari, Ubia, Agirigba, and Nuhu (1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th defendants), sought a bail over alleged threat to their lives, ASP Bawa James, who is the 3rd defendant in the matter, did not.

Meanwhile, counsel for the prosecution (NDLEA), Sunday Joseph, opposed the request that the bail plea be taken, insisting that the matter was scheduled for review of the facts of the 6th and 7th defendants who pleaded guilty to the counts preferred against them.

Chibunna Umeibe and Emeka Ezenwanne (6th and 7th defendants) were the two alleged drug traffickers that were arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu.

Umeibe and Ezenwanne, had pleaded guilty to five, six, and seven counts preferred against them and are being remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre.

The Star