Abba Kyari begs court for bail after ‘escaping murder’ in Kuje Prison

Abba Kyari, the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, on Thursday, approached a Federal High Court for another bail plea.

This is coming after a reported attempt on his life by some inmates at the correctional facility in Kuje.

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Kyari and three of his co-defendants, through their counsel, urged Justice Emeka Nwite to admit them to bail because their lives in the Kuje custodial centre were unsafe.

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

Ikpeazu said the defendants were being remanded in the custodial centre with criminals whose arrest they facilitated.

The lawyer said their lives were at risk, hence the need for their bail.

Four suspended police officers: 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 with 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 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.

Sources said Kyari nearly got murdered by some aggrieved inmates, who accused him of taking bribes from them when he was in active service, while still going ahead to prosecute them.

However, the spokesperson for the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), FCT Command, Humphrey Chukwuedo, said there was no threat to Kyari’s life in the custodial facility.

“There is nothing about Abba Kyari; he is not under any threat. I was with him yesterday, I was with him today before our staff started going to court.

“There is nothing about any threat. He’s not being threatened at all.”

When he was reminded that the cop was in court today seeking bail as a result of the alleged threat to his life, Chukwuedo said, “It is his right to ask for bail but his life is not being threatened.”

Joshua Odeyemi with agency report