TheCable

Hamza Dantani, counsel to Abba Kyari, suspended deputy commissioner of police (DCP), says the properties reportedly seized by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) does not belong to his client.

The agency had said it had seized shops and houses located in Borno, Lagos, Kano and the federal capital territory (FCT) belonging to Kyari.

The suspended DCP, along with four others, is standing trial for alleged drug trafficking.

In a statement on Monday, Dantani said the agency is doing everything to smear the image of the suspended officer.

“By all means, out of desperation, again, NDLEA wanted to spoil Abba Kyari’s name at all cost because they know that all their initial efforts have failed, as overwhelming majority of good Nigerians who want peace and security for the nation are still behind Abba Kyari, despite the setup by NDLEA against Abba Kyari in January 2022, which was followed by massive sponsored media trial earlier this year,” he said.

“Again, NDLEA is sponsoring fabricated lies, untrue stories, and flimsy allegations, trumped-up and false charges in court without justification against Abba Kyari.

“On the 29th day of August, 2022, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, under Justice Inyang Ekwo, dismissed a suit filed by the Attorney General of the Federation to extradite DCP Abba Kyari to America.

“On the 30th day of August, NDLEA filed another 24-count charge against DCP Abba Kyari just to mislead the general public and tarnish his image, despite the same matter being before the Federal High Court in Maiduguri and without any evidence linking Abba Kyari to any of those properties or any link to any drug money, stealing government money, or any proceeds of any crime.

“All the allegations on monies and properties by NDLEA belonging to Abba Kyari are false, untrue and lies, just to mislead the public into wrongly believing that it belongs to Abba Kyari.

“The businessmen who own those properties and gave their documents have already filed their cases against NDLEA in the Federal High Court, Maiduguri.”

The lawyer also gave a breakdown of the funds Kyari currently possesses.

“For the record, the total money in Abba Kyari’s account is 2.8 million Naira in his UBA account, the only account he has been using for the past 8 years; 7 thousand pounds in GTB kept over 8 yrs ago; and 350k Naira in GTB, kept many years ago; less than 200k naira in Sterling Bank and Access Bank Account not in use for over 8 years,” the statement reads.

“These are all the money that DCP Abba Kyari has in his accounts, which he has declared and NDLEA should immediately release all Abba Kyari’s account statements to the public if what they are saying is true.”