By ACorrespondent
Abba Kyari, the suspended DCP, on Thursday, approached a Federal High Court for another bail plea.
Kyari and three of his co-defendants, through their counsel, urged Justice Emeka Nwite to admit them to a bail because their lives in the Kuje Correctional Centre where they are being remanded were unsafe.
At a resumed hearing, Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, counsel to Kyari and suspended ACP Sunday Ubia, informed that an application seeking for 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 are being remanded with criminals in the correctional centre, who through them, their arrests were made possible.
The senior lawyer said their lives are at risk, hence, the need for their bail.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that four suspended police officers, including ACP Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Inspector Simon Agirigba and Inspector 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 for 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.
Messrs Umeibe and Ezenwanne, had pleaded guilty to five, six and seven counts preferred against them and are being remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre.
Meanwhile, the authorities of the Nigerian Correctional Service, have said that Abba Kyari is safe in custody, adding there no threat to his life, contrary to reports.
A statement issued by O.F. Enobore, a
Controller of Corrections, on behalf of the Controller-General of Corrections, said: “The attention of the authorities of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has been drawn to a publication by an online media organisation alleging that Abba Kyari, an inmate in one of the custodial centres, was attacked by his fellow inmates.
“The fake news paddler further stated that the authorities of the Service was considering transferring Abba Kyari to SSS custody.
“The story is false, reckless and mischievous. It is the handiwork of some jobless cheap recognition-seeking charlatans masquerading as newsmen, lacking in intellectual capacity to interrogate what they conjure or hear before feeding the public.
“That the author is completely oblivious of where and how detention of a suspect originates speaks volume of his ineptitude and the much his story can be relied upon.
“For the record, Abba Kyari is one of the over 800 inmates in the location where he is being kept and notable individuals including ex-governors, ministers, senators and other celebrities of higher social status, have passed through the same facility without any threat to their lives.
“The authorities of the NCoS did not and has no cause to request for the transfer of Abba Kyari or, indeed, any inmate to any other detention centre outside its jurisdiction because there is no justification for such request.
“Abba Kyari is safe and sound and goes about his daily routine like any other inmate, unharmed.
“Those playing pranks with his detention are warned to desist from such unpatriotic acts as they may be asked, through formal litigation, to justify their statement.
“The Controller-General of Corrections, Haliru Nababa, mni, is determined to continue to upscale inmates’ welfare, safe and humane custody with fervour and therefore will not be distracted by inane publications.”
