{"id":1314,"date":"2026-10-08T10:06:04","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/?p=1314"},"modified":"2026-10-08T10:06:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:06:04","slug":"abba-kyari-witness-misses-court-again-loses-evidence-in-drug-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/?p=1314","title":{"rendered":"Abba Kyari witness misses court again, loses evidence in drug trial"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


The Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out the evidence of a defence witness in the ongoing drug trafficking trial of suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari and four other police officers after the witness repeatedly failed to appear for cross-examination.

Justice Emeka Nwite made the order on Wednesday following an application by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), which accused the witness, John Nwonke, of repeatedly absenting himself from proceedings despite being given opportunities to testify.

The prosecution counsel, Joseph Sunday, urged the court to enforce its earlier warning that the witness\u2019s evidence would be foreclosed if he failed to appear for the continuation of his testimony.

The judge granted the application after Nwonke again failed to appear when the case was called.

Witness cites ill-health<\/strong>

Nwonke had previously written to the court, attributing his absence to ill-health. However, Sunday challenged the explanation, arguing that the letter neither disclosed the nature of the illness nor identified the hospital where the witness was receiving treatment.

In response, Julius Mba, counsel to Kyari and Simon Agirgba, told the court that Nwonke was a subpoenaed witness and might not have been aware of the hearing date.

The explanation did not stop the court from striking out his evidence, following an earlier warning issued on Monday that the witness\u2019s testimony would be foreclosed if he failed to attend the next sitting.

Defence seeks list of NDLEA officers<\/strong>

At the same proceedings, the defence asked the court to compel the NDLEA to produce a list of its officers who were on duty at the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu, on January 19, 2022, the date linked to the alleged offence.

Mba told the court that the defence had served a subpoena on the agency for the document, which he said would help the defendants determine their next course of action in the trial.

However, Sunday challenged the subpoena, arguing that it was addressed to the Director-General of the NDLEA, an office he said did not exist within the agency.

He explained that the agency\u2019s recognised offices included the chairman\/chief executive officer and the agency secretary. The prosecution counsel nevertheless said an NDLEA officer would produce the list of personnel on duty at the airport.

Justice Nwite adjourned the case until Thursday, October 8, for continuation of the trial.

Background to Kyari\u2019s trial<\/strong>

Kyari and four other suspended police officers are facing prosecution by the NDLEA over allegations involving cocaine recovered from two drug traffickers arrested at the Enugu airport.

The other police defendants are Sunday Ubua, Bawa James, Simon Agirgba and John Nuhu. The agency alleges that Kyari and the other officers tampered with cocaine recovered from Chibunna Umeibe and Emeka Ezenwanne.

The case involves an eight-count charge bordering on alleged conspiracy, obstruction and dealings in cocaine. Umeibe and Ezenwanne, listed as the sixth and seventh defendants, pleaded guilty to the charges in 2022 and were convicted, while Kyari and the other police officers pleaded not guilty.

The trial continued after the court ruled in April 2025 that Kyari and his co-defendants had a case to answer and should enter their defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Federal High Court in Abuja has struck out the evidence of a defence witness in the ongoing drug trafficking trial of suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAow7J_NDA:productID":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[89],"tags":[2167,2170,2168,2171,675,2169,783,1968],"class_list":["post-1314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","tag-abba-kyari","tag-cocaine-case","tag-drug-trafficking-trial","tag-enugu-airport","tag-federal-high-court","tag-john-nwonke","tag-ndlea","tag-nigerian-judiciary"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trendsmill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/HUFXwEjXcAABBMz.jpg?fit=1637%2C874&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trendsmill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}