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Ade Adesomoju, Abuja
The immediate past National Security
Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd), has attributed his continued
detention by the Department of State Service without any fresh charges
preferred against him to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.
Dasuki, who is facing three separate
sets of criminal charges before the Federal Capital Territory High Court
in Maitama, Abuja, and the Federal High Court in Abuja, stated this in
an affidavit which his lawyers filed in support of his application
seeking to be discharged from further trial.
The former NSA urged the court in his
application to discharge him and prohibit the Federal Government from
further prosecuting him on the grounds that his re-arrest by the
Department of State Service after the court granted him bail was
tantamount to Federal Government’s alleged act of assault on the court.
Arguing the application before Justice
Peter Affen of the FCT High Court in Maitama, Abuja on Friday, his lead
counsel, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), said the DSS had re-arrested Dasuki on
December 29, 2015 shortly after he was released from prison on
fulfilling the bail conditions imposed on him by the court.
Daudu said that it became obvious that
the DSS was acting Buhari’s script when the President barely 24 hours
after Dasuki was re-arrested said on the television that the ex-NSA did
not deserve to be released on bail.
The SAN said, “It is a fact that on
December 29, 2015, Dasuki had perfected his bail conditions and was
released from Kuje prison in Abuja but was immediately re-arrested and
taken to an unknown destination. Up until now, they have not filed fresh
charges against him.
“It is equally a fact that on December
30, 2015, about 24 hours after he was remanded, President Muhammadu
Buhari came on the television in the name of presidential media chat and
told the whole world that people like Nnamdi Kanu and Dasuki will not
be allowed to go on bail even if they are granted bail because they
would run away.
“It has now been established beyond
reasonable doubt that the Department of State Service acted the script
of President Buhari and up until now, he has not been allowed access to
his lawyer despite the fact that three separate sets of charges have
been filed against him.
“Many Nigerian newspapers came out with
the information about President Buhari’s position on Dasuki and those
reports have not been refuted.”
The ex-NSA filed the application before
Justice Affen with respect to the 22 counts of N13bn fraud filed against
him and others including a former Director of Finance and
Administration in the Office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu, and a former
Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda.
Others charged along with them, are a
former Governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, the ex-governor’s
son, Sagir Attahiru, and a firm, Dalhatu Investment.
But Justice Baba Yusuf, had on February
8, dismissed a similar application which Dasuki had filed with respect
to the 19 counts of diversion of N32bn arms funds for which he is being
prosecuted along with a former Director of Finance and Administration,
Office of the National Security Adviser, Shuaibu Salisu.
The other co-accused in the case are a
former General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Aminu
Babakusa and two companies – Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance
Referral Hospital Limited.
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