Journalists covering the ongoing trial of the suspended DCP Abba Kyari and others were, on Tuesday, restrained from coming into Court 10 of the Federal High Court, Abuja, venue of the proceeding.
Justice Emeka Nwite gave the order following an application to the effect by Sunday Joseph, counsel for the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Joseph, a director of Legal and Prosecution Department of the NDLEA, had applied for the protection of the next witness listed to give evidence in the trial.
The lawyer prayed to the court that other lawyers, litigants, and visitors, including journalists, who were in the court should not be allowed to be in the courtroom while the hearing lasted.
Justice Nwite then stood down the matter to allow non-parties in the anti-narcotic suit against the suspended police officers to move out.
When the newsmen asked the NDLEA's lawyer on the reason for the application, he said it was to give protection to the witnesses, who are intelligent officers, in the matter.
He said it had been observed that members of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT), who were loyal to Kyari, were still coming to court
"And you don't know who is who; so, it is for the witness' protection. We are now going into the nitty-gritty of the matter and there have been allegations that we are just witch-hunting them," he alleged.
Joseph said though the agency had been calling witnesses, he said the present witnesses cannot be exposed to the public. The hearing is still ongoing as at the time of filing the report
Justice Nwite had, on March 22, dismissed an application filed by Kyari and others seeking an order dismissing the NDLEA's charge against them.
Kyari and three other co-defendants in the suit bordering on drug offence had filed the application. The co-defendants are Sunday Ubia, Simon Agirigba and John Nuhu.
They had prayed the court to quash the criminal charge against them in fresh motions on notice filed by their lawyers on the grounds that the suit was incompetent.
They urged the court to stop their trial because they had not been subjected to the internal disciplinary action of the Nigeria Police Council (NPC) and the Police Service Commission (PSC), as provided by the constitution.
They said that the failure of the complainant to await the disciplinary action against them rendered the charge incompetent and deprived the court of jurisdiction to entertain the charge.