In the ongoing asset-disclosure trial before the Federal High Court in Abuja, suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Abba Kyari has denied ownership of assets purportedly connected to him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
On Tuesday, November 4, 2025, Kyari testified before Justice James Omotosho, rejecting the allegations as “shocking and untrue” and maintaining that some of the properties in question belonged to his late father.
The troubled former head of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) told the court, “Some of those properties belonged to my late father who had about thirty children.”
Kyari emphasized that the Borno State Ministry of Land held the documentation pertaining to those properties and expressed surprise when the NDLEA connected him to many assets.
Additionally, he denied that he had a polo field in Borno State, claiming that it was well above his resources.
“Even Dangote, the richest man in Nigeria, does not own such a property, how much more someone like me,” Kyari remarked, causing the courtroom to grumble.
According to the suspended DCP, the Borno polo ground mentioned by the NDLEA existed long before he was born.
The polo field has existed since I was a young child. “We used to go there to play,” he continued, calling the agency’s assertion “misinformed and misleading.”
The NDLEA’s case, according to Kyari’s defense team, was based more on “assumptions” than on verifiable ownership records.
Kyari acknowledged that he owns a farm along the Abuja–Kaduna route, which he claimed he had been managing for roughly ten years, but he denied owning the other properties. He informed the court that the farmland was developed using his lawful earnings and was his sole personal investment.
For the past ten years or more, I have been in charge of that property. He said, “It’s my only property.”
According to reports, Kyari, a former well-known police officer who oversaw prominent anti-kidnapping operations throughout Nigeria, was suspended in 2022 due to his suspected involvement in a drug-related matter.
He was charged by the NDLEA with failing to disclose multiple assets and cooperating with international narcotics gangs.
Since then, he has entered a not guilty plea to every case. The case was postponed by the court for a later hearing.
