Kyari, Other Defence Lawyers Protest Judge’s 20-Minute Limit On Questioning Witnesses …Indicted NDLEA Officers Summoned by the Court conclude Testimonies.

All defence lawyers in the case involving DCP Abba Kyari and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Friday protested against the presiding judge’s decision to limit their cross-examination of defence witnesses to 20 minutes each.

They argued that the restriction undermined the defendants’ right to a fair trial and adequate legal defence under Section 36 of the Constitution, particularly after the prosecution had been allowed ample time to present its witnesses.

The lawyers took turns to express their objections during the resumed hearing of the case involving 19.5 kilogrammes of cocaine recovered by operatives of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT).

The case followed the arrest of two drug traffickers, Emeka Alphonsus Ezenwanne and Chibunna Patrick Umeibe, at Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on January 19, 2022 by Police IRT. The suspects and the recovered drugs were subsequently transferred to the NDLEA on January 25, 2022 by the Police IRT, for investigation and prosecution.

The two suspects, who have since been convicted, implicated NDLEA officers at the Enugu airport in their written and video confessions, claiming the officers connived with them to bring large quantities of drugs into Nigeria in carry-on bags full to the brim on multiple occasions.

While the Federal High Court in Abuja convicted the two drug traffickers, the NDLEA subsequently arraigned the IRT operatives who arrested the the Drug Traffickers and transferred the drugs to the agency. The operatives were accused of allegedly tampering with 17 kilogrammes of the cocaine the Police recovered by themselves.

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The defence lawyers argued that the prosecution had spent more than three years prosecuting the IRT officers, during which its witnesses were cross-examined without time restrictions. They said some prosecution witnesses testified over several court sittings days, making the 20-minute limit imposed on each defence counsel inadequate and unfair.

However, the presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, insisted on the restriction, prompting objections from the defence lawyers during Friday’s proceedings.

Albert Akahs, counsel to Kyari, was the first to protest.

“It should be on record, sir, that I’m compelled to cross-examine the witness for 20 minutes only,” he said, arguing that the restriction would undermine justice in a criminal trial.

The judge overruled his objection and directed him to continue with the cross-examination.

Counsel to the third defendant, Barrister Mbanefo, also objected, saying the time allocated was insufficient to ensure justice for his client, whom he said had been detained for almost five years without bail despite facing bailable allegations.

“My Lord, I would not stand here and undertake cross-examination in 20 minutes because this is a criminal trial,” he said.

“The defence counsel cannot get justice under this condition where the rights of the accused are abridged as they cannot properly question the defence witness as provided by the Constitution.”

The judge ruled that Mbanefo had forfeited his opportunity to cross-examine the witness.

Meanwhile, one of the defence witnesses, Garba Tukur, an NDLEA officer identified as Garba Mohammed Tukur, told the court that he remained on the agency’s payroll as a Chief Superintendent of Narcotics, a position he had held since January 19, 2022.

Asked whether he had been punished for allowing drugs to pass through the airport, as allegedly stated by the convicted traffickers, Tukur answered in the negative.

“I was not punished for cocaine that passed through Enugu airport in 2022,” he said after being shown the exhibits before the court.

Tukur said he was the officer in charge of the airport when the traffickers allegedly passed through multiple times with bags full of drugs, but maintained that he did not see them.

“I did not post any agent at the arrival Hall on 19 January 2022,” he admitted, acknowledging that the decision was unusual.

He also confirmed that he was the supervising officer on the day of the incident but said neither he nor his team saw or arrested the suspects.

“We didn’t see them (cocaine traffickers). We didn’t arrest them. I don’t know anything about the bags containing cocaine on the 19th of January 2022,” he said.

Although he denied knowing about the bags containing the illicit substances, Tukur admitted that the bags were not recovered or weighed by the NDLEA.

“We didn’t arrest the drug Suspects or weigh the bags,” he said, adding, “I was the highest ranked officer on duty that day.”

He further told the court, “We didn’t test the bags containing cocaine and we didn’t arrest the drug suspects.”

Tukur confirmed that the suspects passed through the Enugu airport but maintained that he did not see them.

He said the NDLEA monitoring team took statements from airport officers after the incident of the Drug passing but did not confront them with the drug suspects or the exhibits.

“The NDLEA did not put us together with drug suspects for interviews. They didn’t show us the statements of the drug suspects arrested by the Police IRT,” he said, adding that the suspects had passed through other airports before arriving in Nigeria.

“There’s nothing abnormal about the bags passing through us without detecting them,” he added. Notwithstanding that the drug traffickers indicted them

Tukur also said the police should have approached NDLEA officers at the airport for assistance in identifying the suspects.

“We didn’t arrest them. The police should have approached us and we would give them tags to the arrival Hall to point at the drug traffickers,” he said.

The defence lawyers, however, argued that the IRT would not disclose its intelligence to criminals or security officers colluding with them. They told the court that the police had withheld the information because their informants clearly said the suspects had been working with compromised NDLEA officers for a long time.

Another NDLEA witness, identified as Kabiru, said officers questioned by the agency’s monitoring unit had not seen the suspects or the exhibits when the incident occurred.

“When the incident happened, we didn’t see them. We were not confronted with the exhibits. The drug pushers were not brought to us when we were under investigation by the NDLEA monitoring unit,” he said.

Kabiru said he was not surprised that cocaine passed through the Enugu airport, explaining that officials did not search every passenger.

“I am not surprised that those drugs in the bags passed through Enugu airport. We don’t search all passengers at the airport,” he said.

“We work with intelligence. We have our modus operandi,” he added.

Meanwhile, video confessions by the convicted traffickers, Chibunna and Emeka, were previously played in court and admitted as exhibits. In the recordings, they allegedly confessed to bringing drugs into Nigeria multiple times in carry-on bags filled to the brim.

They said their boss, Chukwujekwu Basil, sent their photographs to NDLEA officers at the Enugu airport before their arrival and paid for their passage with the drugs.