The Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed the no-case submission filed by suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, and five of his co-defendants, paving the way for them to open their defence in the ongoing drug trafficking trial.
Delivering the ruling, Justice Emeka Nwite held that the prosecution, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), had established a prima facie case against the defendants, sufficient to require them to respond to the charges.
Kyari and other officers are standing trial for allegedly tampering with and dealing in hard drugs, specifically 17.55 kilograms of cocaine.
The NDLEA had arraigned Kyari alongside four other police officers—Sunday Ubia, Bawa James, Simon Agirigba, and John Nuhu as well as two alleged drug traffickers, Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne, on a five-count charge bordering on conspiracy, tampering, and trafficking in narcotics.
According to the charges, between January 19 and 25, 2022, the defendants, while serving under the Inspector-General of Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT), allegedly tampered with 21.35 kilograms of cocaine seized from Umeibe and Ezenwanne by removing and disposing of 17.55 kilograms and replacing it with another substance.
The case is being prosecuted under Section 14(b) of the NDLEA Act, CAP N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.
While Kyari and the other officers pleaded not guilty, Umeibe and Ezenwanne pleaded guilty and entered into a plea bargain. Justice Nwite sentenced both men to two years’ imprisonment on June 14, 2022.
During the trial, NDLEA counsel, Sunday Joseph, presented multiple witnesses in an attempt to prove that Kyari and his team tampered with the seized drugs.
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Following the closure of the prosecution’s case, the defence filed a no-case submission, arguing that the evidence presented did not support the charges.
However, in rejecting the defence’s application, Justice Nwite stated that the quantity of cocaine involved was irrelevant to the charge of tampering under the NDLEA Act.
“Even assuming, without conceding, that the defendants were charged with an amount of cocaine either less than or greater than 17.55 kilograms, it does not negate the fact that there is *prima facie* evidence that Kyari tampered with or dealt in cocaine,” the judge said.
He further ruled that the law under which the defendants were charged does not prescribe different punishments based on quantity.
“There is absolutely nothing in the section that provides for different punishments based on the quantity of cocaine,” he added.
“In view of the foregoing, I am of the view, and I so hold, that a *prima facie* case has been made out against the first defendant (Abba Kyari) in the five-count charge of drug trafficking.
I hereby order him to enter his defence on all five counts,” Justice Nwite concluded.
The judge also ruled that Kyari’s co-defendants must proceed to present their defences.
The matter has been adjourned to May 21, 2025, for the defendants to begin their defence.
