No fewer than 20 lawyers have indicated interest to defend the suspended DCP Abba Kyari in a suit filed by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
A legal practitioner, Musa Shafiu, speaking on behalf of other lawyers, told newsmen on Wednesday, NAN reported.
According to Shafiu, the team is made up of four Senior Advocates of Nigeria.
The lawyer said the decision to defend the suspended cop was premised on the meritorious sacrifices he had made for the country in the area of security.
Shafiu recalled that the “DCP Abba Kyari, in a motion filed before Justice Inyang Ekwo of Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, denied the allegation linking him to an international drug cartel by the NDLEA,” saying Kyari “was ready to appear in court to answer” any case against him, as he was purportedly charged “on a trumped-up allegation without sufficient proof.”
He further said Kyari had distinguished himself, serving his father’s land as a dutiful police officer, having arrested many high-profile criminals across the country, noting that his “good works and dedication to the country is far more than his shortcomings.”
The NDLEA, through its Director of Prosecution and Legal Services, Mr Joseph Sunday, had on Monday arraigned the suspended supercop, alongside six accomplices, on eight counts bothering on drug trafficking.
Although Kyari pleaded ‘not guilty’ to the charges levelled against him, the court had adjourned the case to March 14 for further hearing on the matter.
Meanwhile, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Joseph Egbunike, who was in-charge of the Force Criminal Investigations Department, is dead.
According to reports, Egbunike died on Tuesday, after he slumped in his office, in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The DIG, who hails from Onitsha, Anambra State, was until his death, heading the Special Investigation Panel constituted by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, to investigate the activities of the suspended head of the Police Intelligence Response Team, Abba Kyari, over money laundering allegations.
While details of the incident is still sketchy, it was gathered that Egbunike had met his doctor for a medical check-up after feeling unwell.
Few minutes after he was given drugs, the senior officer who was said to have driven to office in company of family members, in his usual bubbling self, slumped and died.
