Abuja, Nigeria
A Federal High Court in Abuja has cleared suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari and his two brothers after a long-running court case brought against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) over allegations that they did not properly declare their assets.
In simple terms, the court said the anti-drug agency could not provide enough strong evidence to prove that Kyari and his brothers committed the offence they were accused of.
Delivering the judgement on Thursday, Justice James Omotosho said the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Because of that, the court dismissed all the charges against Kyari and his brothers, Mohammed Kyari and Ali Kyari.
According to the judge, in criminal cases the responsibility is always on the prosecution to prove that the accused person actually committed the crime.
“The defendants are still presumed innocent, and the burden rests on the prosecution to establish their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the judge said while reading his decision.
He added that if the prosecution cannot meet that standard, the law requires the court to free the accused persons.
In his judgement, Justice Omotosho strongly criticised how the case was investigated and prosecuted.
The judge said the NDLEA struggled to connect the accused men directly to the crimes they were accused of. According to him, the facts presented in court were not strong enough to support a conviction.
“The prosecution struggled badly to hang something on the defendants but in the clear daylight of facts failed miserably,” the judge said.
In other words, the court believed that the agency tried hard to prove the case but the facts presented were not convincing.
He also described the allegations as doubtful and lacking substance.
Justice Omotosho further noted that it was unfortunate that Kyari — a police officer who had taken part in several dangerous security operations in the past — was taken to court on what he described as a weak case.
The NDLEA had filed a 23-count charge against Kyari and his brothers in a case numbered FHC/ABJ/CR/408/2022.
The agency alleged that Kyari and his brothers failed to properly declare some assets and tried to hide ownership of several properties and financial assets.
According to investigators, they discovered 14 properties and assets that they claimed were linked to Kyari. These reportedly included:
- Shopping malls
- Residential estates
- Several plots of land and farmland
- A polo playground
The properties were said to be located in Abuja and Maiduguri in Borno State.
The agency also told the court that it found more than ₦207 million and €17,598 in Kyari’s bank accounts across several banks including Guaranty Trust Bank, United Bank for Africa, and Sterling Bank.
Prosecutors argued that these issues violated provisions of the NDLEA Act and the **Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011.
But Kyari and his brothers denied all the allegations and pleaded not guilty.
During the trial, the NDLEA called 10 witnesses and presented about 20 pieces of evidence to support its case.
After the prosecution finished presenting its evidence, Kyari’s lawyer Onyechi Ikpeazu filed what lawyers call a “no-case submission.”
This simply means the defence argued that the evidence presented by the prosecution was too weak for the accused persons to even start defending themselves.
At first, the court rejected that argument in October 2025, saying there was enough reason for Kyari to open his defence.
Kyari later took the witness stand to explain his side of the story.
While testifying, Kyari told the court that he had properly declared his assets as required by law, including assets belonging to his wife.
He also said many of the properties mentioned by investigators did not belong to him.
According to him, some of those properties belonged to his late father, who had a very large family.
Kyari also denied owning the polo playground in Borno State, saying he was surprised when the allegation was mentioned in court.
art of the prosecution’s case focused on money found in Kyari’s bank accounts.
However, during the trial, one of the NDLEA’s own witnesses told the court that some of the money deposited into Kyari’s account actually came from the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The witness explained that the funds were given for official police operations when Kyari was leading the Police Intelligence Response Team.
According to the testimony, the money was meant to cover operational expenses such as:
- Logistics
- Accommodation for officers
- Field operations in dangerous areas of the country
The court said the prosecution did not provide any evidence showing that Kyari diverted the money for personal use.
“There is no evidence that the defendant used the monies for his own purposes,” the judge said.
he case also involved foreign currency found in Kyari’s domiciliary bank account.
According to the judge, Kyari had earlier declared that he had about £7,000 left over from a family medical trip abroad around ten years ago.
Justice Omotosho said that explanation appeared believable and that the prosecution failed to prove that the money came from illegal activities.
“The prosecution did not prove that the said foreign currencies were proceeds of unlawful activity,” the judge ruled.
Without proof that the money came from a crime, the court said the money laundering allegations could not stand.
Even though Kyari and his brothers have been cleared in this asset declaration case, his legal troubles are not completely over.
The court made it clear that this case is separate from another criminal trial involving Kyari.
He is still being prosecuted over an alleged cocaine-related offence in another case before the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Both cases were filed by the NDLEA in 2022, but they deal with different accusations.
Before all these legal battles began, Abba Kyari was widely known as one of Nigeria’s most famous police officers.
As head of the Police Intelligence Response Team, he led several major operations against:
- Kidnapping gangs
- Armed robbery syndicates
- Organised crime networks
Many Nigerians once praised him for helping security agencies track down dangerous criminals.
However, his career took a major turn in 2021 after the international fraud investigation involving Ramon Abbas, popularly known as Hushpuppi, linked Kyari to allegations of misconduct.
Following that controversy, the Nigeria Police Force suspended him and recommended disciplinary action.
In 2022, the NDLEA also accused Kyari and members of his team of involvement in a drug-related case involving seized cocaine. That allegation led to his arrest and the trials he is currently facing.
These developments turned Kyari from one of the country’s most celebrated crime fighters into one of the most debated figures in Nigeria’s law-enforcement system.
The ruling also highlights an important rule in Nigeria’s justice system: the prosecution must prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
If the evidence presented in court does not meet that standard, the law requires the judge to discharge and acquit the accused persons.
In this particular case, Justice Omotosho said the NDLEA failed to meet that standard regarding the asset declaration allegations.
With Thursday’s judgement, Abba Kyari and his two brothers have been officially cleared of all the asset declaration and financial crime allegations in this case.
However, the separate drug-related trial against Kyari is still ongoing in another court.
Legal experts say the case will likely continue to attract public attention because of Kyari’s past reputation in Nigeria’s security system and the larger conversation about accountability within law-enforcement agencies.
For now, the court’s position on the asset declaration case is clear: Abba Kyari and his brothers are free of those charges.