As the trial of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Abba Kyari and four others continue, the fourth Prosecution Witness of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), on Wednesday, has informed a Federal High Court, Abuja, that he cannot tell whether operatives of the NDLEA at the Enugu International Airport, who allowed two now Convicted drug traffickers arrived the country before the Police IRT arrested them outside the Enugu Airport, have been arrested and prosecuted.
The 4th witness, Mr Mohammed Ajia, who is the Commander of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Command of the NDLEA, made the clarification under cross examination by counsel to the 1st, 4th and 5th defendants, Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN,.
It would be recalled that the NDLEA is prosecuting Kyari and four other officers of the Inspector General of Police’ Intelligence Response Team (IGP-IRT) on allegations bordering on tampering with hard drugs seized from two drug traffickers arrested by the Police IRT team at the Enugu International Airport and officially transferred to NDLEA with the exhibits.
The Police IRT team that arrested the drug traffickers and recovered the drugs were arraigned in February 2022, alongside the two drug traffickers they arrested- Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne.
Both the 2 drug traffickers arrested by Police IRT and transferred to NDLEA pleaded guilty to the charge of bringing drugs into Nigeria and have since been sentenced to 2 years in prison through a plea bargain with NDLEA.
But Kyari, and four others who are 1st to 5th defendants respectively, pleaded not guilty to the charge of tampering with the drugs they recovered from the drug traffickers they arrested and officially transferred to NDLEA together with the drugs exhibits.
The defendants who have continued to maintain their innocence of the allegations have accused NDLEA officials, particularly the ones at the Enugu International Airport of conniving with the arrested drug traffickers to smuggle hard substances into the country through the Enugu airport.
At Wednesday’s proceedings, the witness led by prosecution lawyer, Mr Joseph Sunday, narrated how he received the transfer of the two suspected drug traffickers and the exhibit drugs officially from Police IRT via an official transfer letter from the police now marked exhibit 13 in Court.
“On the nature of the drugs transferred to me at FCT Command by the Police IRT, we received on that date 12 white packs of the powdery substance suspected to be cocaine and additional 12 powdery packs in pallet form, all in 2 bags.
“All in all, there were 24 packs parked in two traveling bags; one brown and the other greenish colour.
“We acknowledged the receipt of the transferred letter from the Police IRT and minuted the letter to my exhibit keeper,” he said.
Ajia, who also claimed to have witnessed the testing of the substances, explained that “The testing was done pack by pack; each pack has to be tested differently.
“And the results, generally, about 80 percent of the 21kg drug substance transferred by the Police IRT tested positive for pure cocaine while the remaining 20 percent have traces of cocaine and some other substance which suggested that about 20 percent of the cocaine might have been mixed with another substance.”
During cross examination, however, the witness disclosed that their investigation revealed that the exhibit (cocaine) came from Ethiopia to Enugu Airport before the drug traffickers were arrested by the police IRT.
The witness admitted that the agency maintains its operatives at all the international airports in Nigeria.
When the lawyer (Dr Ikpeazu SAN) asked Ajia if the NDLEA operatives at the airport were the people who, brought the cocaine parks in 2 bags (Exhibits 7 and 8) seized from the drug suspects to him, he said: “No, they were not the people.”
When also asked whether as a commander, he made an effort to know whether “your NDLEA operatives who allowed this drug into Nigeria have been arrested and prosecuted for escorting drugs into Nigeria, the witness responded by saying that, “it is not within my purview to find out. Am I the commander of Nigeria?”
When asked if the IRT police officers being prosecuted by the NDLEA were the people who truly arrested the drug traffickers outside the Enugu Airport after being cleared by the NDLEA officers and officially transferred them to NDLEA with the drugs via an official letter now tendered in Court and marked exhibit 13, the NDLEA commander said: “Yes, it is the police as an organization.”
Justice Emeka Nwite then adjourned the hearing till the next day- Thursday.
