The application filed by DCP Abba Kyari and three other suspended police officers to withdraw criminal charges against them has been adjourned to March 22 for ruling.
Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court, Abuja fixed the date after counsel for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Joseph Sunday, and defense lawyers, presented arguments for and against the motion.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NDLEA has filed criminal charges against Kyari (accused 1) and four of his colleagues who are members of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
These include ACP Sunday Ubia, ASP Bawa James, Insp. Simon Agirigba and Insp. John Nuhu who is accused 2 to 5.
The police officer was charged alongside Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne and Chibunna Patrick Umeibe who were arrested by IRT operatives for smuggling cocaine into the country from Ethiopia through the Akanu Ibian International Airport, Enugu.
Although Ezenwanne and Umeibe were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to the three counts preferred against them by the NDLEA, the five officers pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Kyari, Ubia, Agirigba and Nuhu, in a fresh motion with notice filed by their lawyers, prayed the court to dismiss the suit as incompetent.
The applicants, through a team of lawyers, which included Hamza N’Dantani and led by Nureni Jimoh, SAN, asked the court to stop the trial because they had not been subject to the internal disciplinary action of the Nigerian Police Council (NPC) and the Police Service Commission (PSC), as provided by the constitution.
Jimoh argued that the failure of the complainant (NDLEA) to wait for disciplinary action against him renders the charge incompetent and diminishes the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the charge.
He said that since the applicants are police officers in the employment of the Nigeria Police Force, they should be subjected to disciplinary measures by the NPC and PSC with the power to investigate the offenses allegedly committed by the applicants in the course of their duties.
According to the senior lawyer, the internal disciplinary action of the Nigeria Police Council and the Police Service Commission mandated by the constitution against the applicants is a condition precedent before the applicants can be prosecuted by other security agents/agencies.
He said that the disciplinary action taken by the NPC and the PSC had already started in earnest and the applicants had previously answered the questions given by the police authorities before the charges were filed against the applicants, the charges were wrongly cutting off the disciplinary procedures initiated by the authorities. .
He said the officers could not be tried before the Force Disciplinary Committee because they were arrested by the NDLEA.
Jimoh insisted that the police letter relied on by the anti-narcotics agency and marked NDLEA 1 for the prosecution of his client was a letter from the Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of police to the IG which was not addressed to NDLEA.
“This is a police administrative procedure. The NDLEA just went and hijacked it,” he said.
According to him, the PSC’s disciplinary power cannot be shared with any person or agency, including the NDLEA.
He asked the court to dismiss the charges as premature and grant the application.
But the NDLEA counsel, Mr Sunday, opposed the application.
He said that most of the cases cited by the senior counsel were not related to the Police Services Act, saying that instant charges against the accused were a criminal matter.
He submitted that the defendants through the application did not, by affidavit or legal argument, establish the precedence of the necessary conditions to file the charges.
“To that extent, the application must fail and there is no factual evidence,” he said.
Sunday asked the court to dismiss the application and proceed with the hearing on the matter.
Justice Nwite then adjourned the matter until March 22 for decision.
NAN reports that Insp. Bawa James, who is the 3rd defendant in the suit, did not file an application in this regard.