Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal by suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari.
Kyari had through the appeal sought the reversal of an earlier ruling of an Abuja Federal High Court, which refused to grant his request for bail.
Justice Stephen Adah who read the unanimous judgement of a three-man panel, ruled that Kyari’s appeal lacked merit and held that given the nature of the charges pending against Kyari and others before the trial court, such requests for bail needed to be handled with caution.
The Appeal Court held that Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja, who earlier rejected bail to Kyari, appropriately exercised his discretion in refusing to grant Kyari’s bail.
Kyari, who is a former head of the Intelligence Response Team of the Nigeria Police Force is facing prosecution by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
He and four members of the IRT – ACP Sunday J. Ubua, ASP Bawa James, Inspector Simon Agirgba and Inspector John Nuhu were charged before a Federal High Court in Abuja with conspiracy to deal in 17.55kg of cocaine.
They were also charged with dealing in cocaine without lawful authority; conspiracy to tamper with cocaine and unlawfully tampering with the 21.35kg of cocaine seized from two convicted drug dealers.
Details later…