A basic rights enforcement action filed by suspended DCP Abba Kyari against the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency was rejected by a Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday (NDLEA).
After Joseph Sunday, lawyer for the NDLEA, requested that the case be dismissed, Justice Inyang Ekwo dismissed the case.
Cynthia Ikena, Kyari’s counsel, was not present when the case was called.
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The Director of Prosecution and Legal Services for the NDLEA requested the court to dismiss the lawsuit on Sunday.
Ikena wrote a letter to the court requesting an adjournment, according to Justice Ekwo.
However, because the letter was not submitted by a lawyer, it did not comply with the court’s rules.
The letter was ordered to be handed to the NDLEA’s lawyers by the judge.
Sunday, who was taken aback by the news, said that he was not copied in the letter as required by law.
He asked the court to dismiss the case.
Justice Ekwo dismissed the matter after hearing from the NDLEA’s counsel.
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In addition, the judge dismissed the lawsuit after looking into the substantive matter and determining that the parties had merged matters in the action.
According to the Nigerian News Agency (NAN), Ekwo threatened to dismiss the basic rights enforcement action on March 15 after Ikena failed to submit her additional and improved affidavit on Sunday after being served with the counter affidavit on February 28.
Justice Ekwo, in a short ruling, had threatened to strike out the suit if the lawyer was unprepared in the next adjourned date.
“Put your house in order before the next date of hearing and if you do not, I will assume you are frustrating this matter and the suit will be struck out,” he said.
Kyari had said that the NDLEA’s allegations against him were fictitious.
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The suspended DCP disclosed this in an affidavit in support of his motion ex-parte marked: FHC/ANJ/CS/182/22 and filed before Ekwo.
The affidavit, dated Feb. 16 and filed Feb. 17, was deposed to by Kyari’s younger brother, Muhammad Usman.
Kyari, through Ikena, had filled the application to seek for his fundamental rights enforcement.
In the document, Kyari described the allegations against him by NDLEA as “trump-up.”
He said the agency had failed to establish a prima facie case against him.
He averred that the allegation linking him to an international drug cartel by the anti-narcotic agency was untrue.
He said since the Nigerian Police Force arrested him and handed him over to the NDLEA, he had been kept in custody since Feb. 12, without having access to his medical treatment.
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He averred that his arrest and continued detention was an infringement on his fundamental human rights.
Kyari, a former head of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), in an originating motion on notice marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/182/22, dated Feb. 16 and filed Feb. 17 demanded a N500 million in damages from the NDLEA over alleged unlawful arrest and detention.
He also sought for an order directing the NDLEA to tender a written apology to him in two national dailies.
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