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Federal High Court clears Abba Kyari of 23-count assets declaration charge.
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Judge rules NDLEA failed to provide credible evidence linking him to properties.
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Kyari still faces separate cocaine-related trial with other suspended officers.
A Federal High Court in Abuja has acquitted suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari of a 23-count charge of alleged failure to declare assets filed by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Delivering judgment on Thursday, Justice James Omotosho ruled that the prosecution failed to establish the allegations against Kyari and other defendants in the case.
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The anti-drug agency had accused Kyari of failing to declare certain properties and charged him alongside his brothers, Mohammed Kyari and Ali Kyari, who were alleged to have sworn false affidavits to conceal the origin of some assets linked to the police officer.
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However, the court held that the NDLEA did not provide sufficient proof that the properties cited in the charges belonged to Kyari.
Justice Omotosho explained that ownership of landed property must be proven through recognised means such as traditional history, valid title documents, acts of possession, or possession connected to ownership, none of which the prosecution established.
The judge also ruled that the agency failed to present credible evidence linking Kyari to properties allegedly located in Fountain Estate in Kasana, a building on Linda Choko Road in Asokoro, Abuja, and another property in Maiduguri, Borno State.
During the trial, Kyari maintained that the Maiduguri property belonged to his late father and had been jointly inherited by him and his siblings, a claim the prosecution failed to disprove.
Justice Omotosho further dismissed the conspiracy allegations against Kyari’s brothers, ruling that there was no evidence to support claims that they swore false affidavits to conceal property ownership.
The judge described the prosecution’s case as weak and lacking credible proof.
Despite the acquittal, Kyari and four other suspended police officers are still standing trial before Justice Emeka Nwite at the Federal High Court over alleged involvement in a cocaine trafficking case linked to two convicted drug traffickers, Chibunna Patrick Umeibe and Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne, who were sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in 2022.
