Abuja high court grants NDLEA permission to detain Abba Kyari for a further 14 days

ASSISTANT Police Commissioner Abba Kyari is to spend at least another fortnight in detention after an Abuja federal high court approved an application by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to detain him for a further 14 days.

On Monday February 14,  Mr Kyari, who headed the Nigeria Police Force's Intelligence Response Team (IRT), was arrested over his alleged links with an international drug cartel. NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, said Mr Kyari is a member of a cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria pipeline.

Mr Kyari is currently being interrogated but claiming his innocence, the policeman one once dubbed Supercop, has filed a lawsuit with the Federal High Court in Abuja asking to be released on bail because he is diabetic. In a separate case, however, the NDLEA applied to the court for permission to keep Mr Kyari in detention for a further 14 days and this request was granted today.

Justice Zainab Abubakar issued the order for Mr Kyari’s further detention while ruling in an ex-parte application argued by the NDLEA counsel, Mike Kassa. In its case, the NDLEA had pleaded for more time to detain Mr Kyari on the ground that the drug trafficking allegations against him were complex and may require travelling outside the country to make some enquiries.

Mr Kassa asked the court to grant the detention extension in the interest of justice and to be fair to the suspect too through diligent investigation. In a short ruling, Justice Abubakar ordered that Mr Kyari be detained for another 14 days, stating that the 14 days should start from today February 22.