20 houses NDLEA linked to me belong to my family, not me – Abba Kyari

Abba Kyari, former head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Nigerian police, told the Federal High Court in Abuja on Wednesday that 20 houses he was accused of not declaring as his assets were owned by his late father.

Mr Kyari, fielding questions under cross-examination by the prosecution in a non-disclosure of assets trial, said the houses now belonged to about 30 children of his deceased father.

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“I cannot put my interest in the 20 houses in the asset form because they belonged to my father and not me. If I get my share, I can put my interest in it,” Mr Kyari said, testifying as the first defence witness in the trial.

Asked by the prosecution lawyer, Sunday Joseph, to look at his asset declaration form and say whether he disclosed any interest in the 20 properties left by his father, Mr Kyari said he could not have done so because the assets did not belong to him.

Mr Kyari, who is entangled in a separate cocaine trafficking trial, maintained that he could only declare his share of the assets allocated to him.

The suspended police officer told the court that some of the assets were sold to fund his father’s medical treatment. “About four of the properties were sold then,” he said.

He also said some of the assets were sold and the proceeds given to children in need.

The judge, James Omotosho, said the parties would have the opportunity to address the legal issue of whether a person was bound to declare family property in an asset form in their final written addresses.

Mr Kyari is facing the asset declaration trial alongside his brothers, Mohammed Kyari and Ali Kyari.

The case is different from the cocaine deal trial he is undergoing alongside some police officers before another judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Both cases were instituted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in 2022.

The anti-narcotic agency arraigned the Kyari brothers in 2022 on 24 charges of non-disclosure of assets, money laundering and concealment of assets.

The charges accused them of failing to make full disclosure of their assets, disguising ownership of properties, and converting monies traced to them.

The agency said the offences violated Section 35 (3)(a) of the NDLEA Act and Section 15 (3)(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011.

Mr Kyari began taking the stand as the first defence witness after the court dismissed the defendants’ no-case submission in October.

He has since denied some assets linked to him by the NDLEA.

Filling out assets form

Under cross-examination by the prosecution on Wednesday, Mr Kyari explained that he initially refused to fill out the asset form given to him during interrogation by the agency’s officers, maintaining that he would not make any statement in the absence of his lawyers.

But he said he changed his mind after an NDLEA officer informed him that refusal to fill out the form was a criminal offence.

The prosecution lawyer, Mr Joseph, subsequently tendered bank documents as exhibits, which Mr Kyari confirmed bore his name.

Mr Kyari, who said he bagged a BSc in Geography, joined the Nigerian Police Force in May 2000. He was the head of the special police unit, Intelligence Response Team (IRT) at the Force Headquarters in Abuja, until his suspension in 2022.

After asking some questions, the prosecution lawyer sought an adjournment to obtain more documents for further cross-examination of the defendant.

The judge adjourned the matter till 12 November for the continuation of cross-examination.

The prosecution had closed its case after calling 10 witnesses and tendering at least 20 exhibits.

But instead of opening their defence, the defendants chose to file a no-case submission, urging the court to dismiss the charges against them on grounds, including that the NDLEA failed to provide credible evidence to prove the charges against them.

The court dismissed the no-case submission in October, ruling that the defendants had a case to answer and ordered them to open their defence.

Denial

During examination-in-chief by his lawyer, earlier on Tuesday, Mr Kyari denied ownership of some of the property linked to him.

Led by his lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Kyari said the assets, wrongly attributed to him, belonged to his late father, who had about thirty children.

However, he admitted ownership of a farmland located along Abuja-Kaduna Road, saying he had been on the farm since the last decade.

He equally admitted that he operated accounts with United Bank for Africa (UBA), Access Bank and Guarantee Trust Bank (GTB), and that the over £7,000 (pounds) found in his domiciliary account was earlier declared in line with the law.

He said the millions of naira in his accounts were payments from the police and some state governors for operations.

On why funds he said were sent by the Central Bank of Nigeria were transferred to his relatives, Mr Kyari said the transfers were repayment for loans he took from them for operations because police funding usually took a long time to process.

Mr Kyari told the court that, on his watch, the Anti-Robbery Squad and IRT carried out over one thousand operations. He said funds were sent to his account for disbursement for the operations, while he also took loans to fund urgent operations.

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Alongside the asset declaration trial, Mr Kyari is facing prosecution on more serious charges of cocaine trafficking alongside four IRT officers.

Two of their co-defendants already pleaded guilty. The convicts were convicted and sentenced in June 2022.

In April this year, the trial judge, Emeka Nwite, ordered Mr Kyari and the rest of his co-defendants to open their defence.