The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has dismissed an application by the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari, seeking to strike out charges preferred against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
The presiding judge, Justice Emeka Nwite, dismissed the application on Wednesday.
Justice Nwite ruled that the court has the exclusive right and jurisdiction to hear drug-related cases as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the NDLEA Act.
The NDLEA had filed criminal charges against Kyari (Ist defendant), a former head of the Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and four of his colleagues who were members of IRT.
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They include ACP Sunday Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Inspector Simon Agirigba, and Inspector John Nuhu who are 2nd to 5th defendants respectively.
The police officers were charged alongside Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne and Chibunna Patrick Umeibe, who were arrested by the IRT officers, for smuggling cocaine into the country from Ethiopia through Akanu Ibian International Airport, Enugu State.
Although Ezenwanne and Umeibe were convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment after they pleaded guilty to the three counts preferred against them by the NDLEA, the five officers pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them.
Justice Nwite, on January 18, adjourned for ruling in the application filed by Kyari, Ubia, Agirigba, and Nuhu in the suit bordering on drug offence.
They had prayed the court to quash the criminal charge against them in fresh motions on notice filed by their lawyers on the grounds that the suit was incompetent.
They urged the court to stop their trial because they had not been subjected to the internal disciplinary action of the Nigeria Police Council (NPC) and the Police Service Commission (PSC), as provided by the Constitution.
They said the failure of the complainant (NDLEA) to await the disciplinary action against them rendered the charge incompetent and deprived the court of jurisdiction to entertain the charge.
But the NDLEA counsel, Joseph Sunday, opposed the application.
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He argued that most of the cases cited by lawyers to the defendants did not relate to Police Service Act, saying the instant charge against the defendant was a criminal matter.
He stated that the defendants through their applications had not, by way of affidavit or legal argument, established any condition precedence required for the filing of this charge.
“To that extent, their application must fail and bereft of any factual evidence,” he said.
Sunday urged the court to dismiss the application and proceed to the hearing of the matter.
Ruling on Wednesday, Justice Nwite held that the powers of the Police Service Commission did not supersede the powers of the Federal High Court, adding that the subject matter of the case was within the jurisdiction of the court.
According to the judge, Section 251(2)(F) and (3) of the Constitution confers the court the power to hear and determine the charge.
It would be recalled that on September 5, 2022, in a fresh suit filed at the Federal High Court, the NDLEA accused Kyari of non-disclosure of assets.
According to the fresh 24 charge, the NDLEA said Kyari failed to declare his ownership of the property in different locations in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and Maiduguri.
The anti-drug agency also said over N207 million and 17,598 Euro were also found in his various accounts in three banks.
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