On Thursday, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to respond to a bail application filed by Abba Kyari, a suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police.
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.
After being handed over to the NDLEA by the police hierarchy for the alleged drug crime, he filed a lawsuit to regain his freedom.
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, necessitating a brief pause in the proceedings to allow the applicant’s lawyer, Cynthia Ikenna, to serve a copy of the document on Kassa.
When the case was resumed, the NDLEA’s Director of Legal Services, Joseph Sunday, requested an adjournment so that the agency could respond to Kyari’s bail request.
Justice Ekwo directed the lawyers for the parties in the suit to put their affairs in order and adjourned the case until February 28 for the hearing of the bail application.
Kyari’s lawyer, Ikenna, had asked the judge in an ex parte application to admit her client to bail on health grounds.
However, before scheduling the case for hearing on Thursday, Justice Ekwo directed the lawyer to serve the pending request on the NDLEA.
The hearing was halted, however, due to improper service of court documents on the anti-narcotics agency.
The NDLEA confirmed Kyari was in its custody on February 14 after previously declaring the cop wanted for allegedly aiding and abetting drug pushing and running a drug cartel.