The Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday admitted a video evidence tendered by defence witness in the trial of suspended deputy commissioner of police, Abba Kyari, on illicit drug charges.
The defence claimed that the video exhibit indicts operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), the organisation that is prosecuting him alongside four members of this now disbanded Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
The police officers facing prosecution along with Mr Kyari are Sunday J. Ubia, Bawa James, Simon Agirigba and John Nuhu.
In a ruling on Friday, trial judge Emeka Nwite overruled NDLEA’s objection to the video evidence tendered by the defence.
The judge marked the video recordings as “Exhibit D-3.”
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the video recording captures two drug traffickers, Chibunna Umeibe and Emeka Ezenwanne, making confessional statements.
The two men were co-defendants in the ongoing drug trafficking trial of Mr Kyari and members of his team until they pleaded guilty and the trial judge, Mr Nwite, convicted them on 14 June 2022.
The judge sentenced the duo, who was arrested at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu, to two years imprisonment on each of counts 5, 6 and 7 to which they pleaded guilty.
On 28 January, El-John Nwonke, a police inspector, testified as defence witness on how officers of the NDLEA allegedly aided the convicts – Mr Umeibe and Mr Ezenwanne – to beat security checks at Enugu International Airport on 19 January 2022, on arrival from Ethiopia with the substance suspected to be cocaine.
Mr Nwoke, the second defence witness, said the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) led by Mr Kyari arrested the cocaine traffickers shortly after NDLEA officers cleared them at the airport.
He said he was serving with the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) of the Nigerian Police Force, Abuja, when the two suspects were arrested by the IRT officers and brought for investigation.
He said he was part of the team that conducted the interview session for the suspects on 20 January 2022 when their statements were taken and the session recorded.
The witness said the recorded video was transfered into a digital video disc (DVD).
Mr Nwonke, while being led in evidence-in-chief by Mr Kyari’s lawyer, Onyechi Ikpeazu, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), told the court that the duo confessed that the police officers arrested them with the substance, allegedly cocaine, at the airport after NDLEA officers on duty had cleared them.
The defence witness said the convicted drug traffickers told his team how the NDLEA officers at the point of entry used sign language to help them beat security checks on arrival, before the police eventually arrested them.
The serving police officer, who was subpeaned to testify, presented his warrant card and official identification before the court.
He said the convicts told him that they had been in the business for a long time.
The witness told Mr Ikpeazu that a copy of the subpoena letter, the DVD and a certificate of compliance were with him in court.
The defence lawyer then sought to tender them as evidence.
Although, NDLEA’s prosecution lawyer, Joseph Sunday, did not oppose to tendering the subpoena, which he regarded as court document, he opposed the the video and the certificate of compliance.
Mr Nwite then adjourned until 27 February for ruling after taking the arguments of the prosecution and the defence.
Delivering the ruling on Friday, the judge admitted the video recording as “Exhibit D-3” and adjourned until 16 March for the video to be played in the continuation of trial.
The NDLEA is prosecuting Mr Kyari and the four suspended IRT members of dealing in 21.35kg of cocaine between 19 and 25 January 2022, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under section 11(c) of the NDLEA Act.
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In one of the charges, the anti-narcotic agency alleged that Mr Kyari and the four IRT operatives tampered with 21.35kg of cocaine by removing 17.55 kg of it and “substituting same with some other substance”. The offence is contrary to and punishable under section 14(b) of the NDLEA Act.
The prosecutors also accused Mr Kyari, in a count which features only him as the sole defendant, of attempting to obstruct the NDLEA and its authorised officers by offering $61,400 to a senior anti-narcotics operative as an inducement to prevent the testing of the 17.55kg of cocaine.
In three of the counts, Messrs Umeibe and Ezenwanne were accused of importing 21.35kg of cocaine into Nigeria via the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, Enugu State, on 19 January 2022.
Mr Kyari, who has been repeatedly denied bail alongside his co-defendants, faces money laundering and failure to declare alleged secret assets in a separate case.
In the case involving 23 counts before another judge, James Omotosho, the NDLEA alleged that Mr Kyari and his two younger brothers – Mohammed Kyari and Ali Kyari – failed to fully disclose their assets.
The parties already made final arguments in the case in December.
(NAN)