Court refuses to grant Abba Kyari’s co-defendant bail

29 Apr Court refuses to grant Abba Kyari’s co-defendant bail

The Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, dismissed a bail application by a co-defendant standing trial on cocaine trafficking charges alongside a suspended deputy commissioner of police, Abba Kyari, and others.

The court dismissed the bail application by Bawa James, an assistant superintendent of police, adjudging him to be a flight risk.

This decision came exactly a month after the trial judge, Emeka Nwite, similarly dismissed other defendants’ bail applications on March 28.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the judge, had while ruling on other defendants’ applications, said that of Mr James was not ripe for hearing.

After the hearing of the outstanding bail application, the judge ruled on Thursday that the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) succeeded in proving beyond doubt that Mr James was not worthy of bail.

The judge upheld the argument by NDLEA’s lawyer, Joseph Sunday, that Mr James (the 3rd defendant) was likely to jump bail.

Mr Nwite also said the 3rd defendant had failed to bring up strong evidence to challenge the anti-narcotic agency’s submission that the evidence against him was very serious.

He said though the defence argued that the court had the discretionary power to rule in favour of the applicant since the offence was a bailable one, the argument of the prosecution swayed him into rejecting the bail request.

The judge, after rejecting Mr James’ bail application, adjourned the matter until May 26.