Justice Inyang Ekwo of a Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, ordered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to respond to a bail application filed by a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari.
Kyari, a former head of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team, is being held by the agency over his alleged involvement in a 25kg cocaine deal.
He instituted a lawsuit to regain his freedom after he was handed over to the NDLEA by the police hierarchy over the alleged drug crime.
During Thursday’s hearing, counsel for the NDLEA, Mike Kassa, informed the judge that the agency had not been served with Kyari’s application for bail, thereby forcing a stand-down of the suit for about 30 minutes to enable the applicant’s lawyer, Cynthia Ikenna, to serve a copy of the document on Kassa.
When the case resumed, the NDLEA’s Director of Legal Services, Joseph Sunday, asked the court for an adjournment to enable the agency to respond to Kyari’s bail request.
Justice Ekwo ordered lawyers to parties in the suit to put their houses in order and adjourned the suit till February 28 for the hearing of the bail application.
Kyari’s lawyer, Ikenna, had in an ex parte application, appealed to the judge to admit her client to bail on health grounds.
But justice Ekwo instead directed the lawyer to serve the pending request on the NDLEA, before slating the suit for hearing on Thursday.
However, due to the improper service of the court documents on the anti-narcotics agency, the hearing was stalled.
The NDLEA had on February 14 confirmed that Kyari was in its custody after it earlier declared the cop wanted for allegedly aiding and abetting drug pushing and running a drug cartel.
