My life in danger in prison, Abba Kyari tells court

Abba Kyari, the suspended deputy commissioner of police, on Thursday approached a Federal High Court for another bail plea.

Mr Kyari and three of his co-defendants, through their counsel, urged Justice Emeka Nwite to admit then to bail because their lives at the Kuje Correctional Centre, where they are being remanded, were unsafe.

At a resumed hearing, Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), counsel to Mr Kyari and suspended ACP Sunday Ubia, informed the court that an application seeking 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 did in the course of policing the country.

Mr Ikpeazu said the defendants were being remanded with criminals in the correctional centre, whose arrests were made possible by the efforts of the defendants.

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 Insp. John Nuhu, listed as second to fifth defendants respectively, are being charged by the NDLEA for alleged drug offence alongside Mr Kyari.

However, while Messrs Kyari, Ubia, Agirigba and Nuhu (1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th defendants), sought bail over alleged threat to their lives, ASP Bawa James, who is the third defendant in the matter, did not.

Meanwhile, the counsel for the prosecution (NDLEA), Sunday Joseph, opposed the request for the bail plea to be taken, insisting that the matter was scheduled for review of the facts of the sixth and seventh 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 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.

(NAN)