The suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, DCP, Abba Kyari, who is facing a drug trafficking charge, has indicated alleged threats to his life at the Correctional centre where he is in custody, using that as a basis to make a fresh application for bail at the Federal High Court in Abuja. 

 Kyari, through his team of lawyers led by Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, told the court that he is feeling unsafe at the Kuje Correctional Centre where he said he was being remanded with hardened criminals. Ikpeazu said the fresh application for the court to reconsider the request his client earlier made for bail pending the determination of the charge against him, became necessary, considering the nature of assignments he undertook while performing his duties as a police officer.

 According to the defence lawyer, some of the inmates on remand at the Kuje Correctional Centre were people that Kyari’s team at the Police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, ensured were put behind bars. Meanwhile, counsel for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Mr Sunday Joseph, urged the court to refuse the bail request by the defendants.

 The prosecution counsel maintained that the matter was originally slated for the review of facts of the case relating to two self-confessed drug traffickers, Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwane, who was linked to the suspended DCP, Kyari.

 Both Umeibe and Ezenwanne, who were cited as 6th and 7th Defendants in the charge marked FHC/ABJ/57/2022, were arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu while attempting to smuggle cocaine into the country. They had on March 7, when they were arraigned alongside Kyari, pleaded guilty to the drug trafficking charge.