Colonel Sambo Mohammed Dasuki yesterday
opened up before an Abuja High Court
alleging that President Muhammadu Buhari
was behind his unlawful arrest and
detention without trial since December 29,
2015.
Dasuki who spoke through his counsel, Mr.
Joseph Daudu (SAN), claimed that Buhari
unjustly instigated his arrest and detention
by the Department of the State Security (DSS)
against the bail granted him by three
different courts in various criminal charges
brought against him by the Federal
Government.
He claimed that the president through his
comments during his recent Presidential
Media Chat in December 2015 confirmed that
he was behind his ordeal.
In a further affidavit filed in support of his
application, Dasuki claimed that the
president betrayed his emotion during the
Presidential Media Chat when he openly told
Nigerians that he (Dasuki) and Nnamdi Kanu
would not be allowed on bail because they
would jump bail.
Dasuki claimed he had since been held
incommunicado since his re-arrest on
December 29 when he perfected the third
bail granted him by Justice Peter Affen.
He therefore asked Justice Affen to prohibit
his further trial until the federal government
allows him out on bail so as to prepare
effectively for defence in the various
criminal charges brought against him by
government.
Dasuki claimed that his continued detention
in spite of the bail granted him was
contemptuous of the three courts and urged
that the government be made to purge itself
of the contempt.
The former NSA who had been in detention
since December 29 last year claimed that the
detention had prevented him from filing
effective defence because he had no access to
his lawyers.
The defendant exhibited several newspaper
cuttings in support of his motion seeking to
stop his trial adding that the newspaper
publications were the comments of Buhari
during the Presidential Media Chat to the
effect that he (Dasuki) and Nnamdi Kanu
should not be allowed to go home even if
granted bail by any court.
Dasuki said that up till now the newspaper
publications had not been refuted by the
Presidency.
Daudu who argued the motion on behalf of
his client urged Justice Affen to enforce his
court order which granted bail to Dasuki
adding that justice was for all parties and not
just the prosecutor.
Daudu also stated that the claim that Dasuki
was being held by the DSS and not the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
(EFCC) did not hold water because the federal
government was the complainant in the
charge against Dasuki and that both the DSS
and EFCC were agents of the federal
government.
However, in opposing the application,
counsel to the federal government, Mr.
Rotimi Jacob informed Justice Affen that the
charge against Dasuki was at the instance of
the EFCC and not the DSS.
He denied that the federal government
disobeyed the court on the grounds that on
December 29, 2015 when the bail conditions
were perfected, Dasuki was released by the
prison authority at Kuje but was however re-
arrested by another government agency.
Jacobs asked the court not to grant Dasuki's
application because DSS that re-arrested him
was not a party to the charges against him
before Justice Affen who granted him the
bail.
On the newspaper publications, Jacobs
claimed that they were not tenable before the
court because they had not been certified as
required by law.
After listening to parties, Justice Affen fixed
March 4, 2016 to give ruling on the
application.
The federal government had filed criminal
charges against Dasuki, Former Minister of
State for Finance Mr. Bashir Yuguda and
three others bothering on money laundering,
breach of trust and corruption.
No comments:
Post a Comment