In a major court victory for the embattled former police chief, the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday discharged and acquitted suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Abba Kyari and his two brothers in the high-profile asset non-declaration case brought by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Justice James Omotosho, in a ruling that lasted several minutes, threw out the entire 23-count charge against Kyari, Mohammed Kyari and Ali Kyari, declaring that the anti-narcotics agency failed woefully to prove its allegations beyond reasonable doubt.
The judge did not mince words, describing the prosecution’s case as nothing short of “persecution.” He held that the burden of proof lay squarely on the NDLEA, a burden the agency could not discharge.
“The defendants are hereby discharged and acquitted,” Justice Omotosho ruled, sending a wave of relief through the defence team.
The case, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/408/2022, was filed in 2022 after the NDLEA claimed it uncovered 14 undeclared assets linked to the Kyari family. These included shopping malls, residential estates, a polo ground, farmlands and plots of land scattered across the Federal Capital Territory and Maiduguri in Borno State.
Prosecutors also alleged that over N207 million and €17,598 were found in accounts belonging to the first defendant at Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa and Sterling Bank. They accused the trio of disguising ownership of properties and converting funds, offences said to contravene the NDLEA Act and the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.
The defendants, who pleaded not guilty from the onset, had gone through a lengthy trial that saw the NDLEA call 10 witnesses and tender 20 exhibits. After the prosecution closed its case, the defence filed a no-case submission, which the court initially dismissed in October 2025 before ordering them to open their defence.
Kyari himself took the witness box in November 2025, insisting he had declared all his assets and those of his wife as required by law. He maintained that several disputed properties actually belonged to his late father, who had many children, and that some of his accounts had been frozen by the agency.
Final written addresses were adopted in December 2025, and the court had fixed February 26, 2026 for judgment before delivering the verdict today.
Reacting to the outcome, defence counsel Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), who represented Kyari, and Monjok Agom for the brothers, expressed satisfaction with the ruling. No immediate reaction came from the NDLEA, and sources close to the agency were silent on whether an appeal would be filed.
Kyari, once hailed as Nigeria’s top crime fighter and former head of the now-disbanded Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), has been on suspension since 2021. He is still facing a separate drug trafficking trial before another judge of the same court.
For now, however, the former “super cop” can breathe a sigh of relief on the asset matter as he walks out of this particular legal storm a free man.