Lawyers representing Abba Kyari, Sunday Ubua, Bawa James, Simon Agirigba and John Nuhu, all senior officers of the Nigeria Police of the Inspector General of Police’s Intelligent Response Team, IGP-IRT, have asked the Federal High Court to strike out case involving them and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) but rather subject them to internal police discipline.
In a fresh application at the Federal High Court Abuja, the legal team led by Dr Ikpeazu Ikpeazu (SAN) said there is an abuse of constitutional process in the handling of the case involving the suspended police officers and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The application obtained by LEADERSHIP was predicated on the accusations that the NDLEA tempered with some of the drugs the police officers themselves recovered from two drug traffickers arrested by the Police IRT on January 19, 2022 outside Enugu Airport.
In a motion on notice seeking to strike out the charges dated October 12, 2022, filed by Kyari’s legal team led by Dr Ikpeazu Ikpeazu (SAN), the lawyers said that internal police set up that border on discipline allows for serving police officers to be dealt with internally first by the Police Service Commission as stipulated clearly by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not hand their officers and men to other security agencies for discipline. The suspects denied the accusation and accused the NDLEA and its officers in Enugu Airport of connivance with international and domestic drug cartels.
The lawyers said these alleged offences, which they were being prosecuted “were allegedly committed in the course of police investigation and constitutionally should be subjected to disciplinary measures by the Police Service Commission who have the powers to investigate these offences allegedly committed in the course of the applicants’ duties.”
They said, “The five-count charge is similar or related to allegations previously made by the Applicants’ Police Service Commission in respect of disciplinary action against Police officers, and it was for the same subject matter and for the same period. This charge against the Applicants’ affected the completion of this constitutional procedure.
“Internal disciplinary action of the Police Service Commission provided by the Constitution against the Applicants is a condition precedent before the Applicants can be charged by any other security agent/agency. The disciplinary action by the Police Service Commission commenced earnestly and timely. The applicants had previously answered a query issued to them by the police authority before the charge herein was filed against the applicants.”
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