By Musa Mohammed

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday discharged and acquitted suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, (DCP) Abba Kyari, and his two brothers of allegations of asset non-disclosure brought by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Delivering judgment, Justice James Omotosho ruled that the anti-narcotics agency failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt against Kyari and his younger brothers, Mohammed and Ali Kyari.
The judge described the prosecution’s case as weak , watery and lacking factual basis, stressing that the burden of proof rested squarely on the prosecution.
“The defendants are still presumed innocent and thus a heavy burden rests on the prosecution to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. Failure to do so will see the defendants walk home free,” Omotosho held.
He further criticised the investigation conducted by the NDLEA, saying the prosecution struggled unsuccessfully to establish wrongdoing.
“The prosecution struggled badly to hang something on the defendants but in the clear daylight of facts failed miserably. There is nothing to hold the defendants based on the evidence presented,” the judge ruled, before discharging and acquitting the trio on all counts.
The NDLEA had arraigned Kyari, a former head of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), alongside his brothers on a 23-count charge bordering on alleged failure to disclose assets and disguising ownership of properties.
According to the agency, investigations uncovered 14 assets allegedly linked to Kyari, including shopping malls, residential estates, a polo playground, lands and farmland in the Federal Capital Territory and Maiduguri, Borno State.
The agency also claimed that more than ₦207 million and €17,598 were traced to accounts linked to Kyari in several banks.
However, Kyari denied the allegations, insisting he had fully declared his assets and those of his wife in compliance with the law. He also maintained that some of the properties listed by the prosecution belonged to his late father, who had about 30 children.
Justice Omotosho noted that evidence presented by the prosecution indicated that funds in Kyari’s accounts included operational money transferred from the Central Bank of Nigeria for police intelligence activities.
According to the court, there was no evidence showing that the funds were diverted for personal use.
“There is no evidence that the 1st defendant used the monies for his own purposes, nor was there any complaint from the Nigeria Police or any organisation that the funds were misused,” the judge said.
On the foreign currency allegation, the court held that Kyari had declared about £7,000 in his domiciliary account and explained that it was leftover funds from his father’s medical treatment abroad over a decade ago.
Justice Omotosho ruled that the prosecution failed to establish that the money was illegally obtained or connected to money laundering.
He consequently discharged and acquitted Kyari on the relevant counts, describing the case as “persecutory rather than prosecutory.”
The case is separate from the ongoing cocaine trafficking trial involving Kyari and some police officers before Justice Emeka Nwite at the Federal High Court in Abuja, although both cases were instituted by the NDLEA in 2022.