Sambo Dasuki, the former National
Security Adviser, regained his freedom on Christmas eve, after four years of
detention by officials of the State Security Services (SSS).
Mr Dasuki, a retired Nigerian
Army colonel, had been held by the SSS since December 2015 when he was arrested
on allegations he diverted $2.1 billion from funds meant for the war against
terrorism.
He has denied wrongdoing and is
yet to be convicted.
Since his arrest and arraignment,
Mr Dasuki has been granted bail at least seven times by various courts, with
the SSS refusing to heed all the orders.
The SSS, an agency under the
direct control of the president, is notorious for disobeying court rulings.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola, who is
now retired, on November 3, 2015, granted the former NSA’s request to be
allowed to travel abroad for cancer treatment.
But instead of obeying the court
order, the SSS mounted a siege on his residence, effectually placing him under
house arrest. He was again taken into custody on December 1.
In a bid to justify their action,
the SSS explained at that period, Mr Dasuki was under investigation for a
separate offence.
The EFCC then arraigned Mr Dasuki
and others before Justice Peter Affen on a 22-count charge.
Those he was charged with include
a former minister of state for finance, Bashir Yuguda; a former Sokoto State
governor, Attahiru Bafarawa; his son, Sagir and his company, Dalhatu Investment
Limited.
They were charged on a 25-count
charge bordering on criminal breach of trust and misappropriation of public
funds to the tune N19.4 billion.
Following this, Justice Affen,
again this time granted him bail after the court held that he was arraigned
before it on the same charges of corruption.
The judge ordered Mr Dasuki and
his co-accused persons to pay the sum of N250 million each and provide two
sureties in like sum.
But the case was moved to Justice
Hussein Baba-Yusuf’s court due to the defence team’s complaints that it would
amount to double jeopardy for their clients to be standing trial in two courts
simultaneously on similar charges. The new judge allowed them to remain on the
bail earlier granted them.
Before the case was transferred
to Justice Baba-Yusuf, Mr Dasuki was standing trial before him alongside a
former general manager in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC),
Aminu Baba- Kusa, and two firms: Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral
Hospital Limited.
They were re-arraigned on an
amended 32-count charge bordering on criminal breach of trust, ‘dishonest
release’ and illegally receiving various sums of money to the tune of N33.2
billion.
‘Prime Target’
While the others were allowed on
bail, the state held on to the former NSA on the grounds that he was being held
in relation to separate offences, a position in which Mr Dasuki challenged up
to the Supreme Court.
However, after fulfilling the
bail conditions, Mr Dasuki was denied bail and was detained at the Kuje Prison.
His lawyer, Ahmed Raji, described the SSS’s action as “an affront to the rule
of law under democracy.”
The former NSA approached the
court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS Court) in 2016.
The court ruled that his continued detention, despite a valid court order
granting him bail, was unlawful and an affront to his fundamental human rights.
The court also ruled that the
federal government should pay Mr Dasuki N15 million as damages, adding that the
cost of litigation should also be borne by the Nigerian government.
Despite the court judgement and
criticism by local and international human rights activists, Mr Dasuki was
still detained by the government.
On January 24, 2017, Justice Baba
Yusuf, of the Federal High Court, Abuja, reaffirmed Dasuki’s bail, stressing
that he was entitled to it and having been admitted to same since 2015 when the
federal government brought criminal charges against him.
Similarly, in April 2017, Justice
Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja, affirmed the bail granted
the former NSA in 2015.
Yet, the state security service
disobeyed.
Again, Mr Dasuki returned to the
Federal High Court with a fundamental rights enforcement application, similar
to the one the ECOWAS court upheld.
Delivering judgement in that suit
on July 2, 2018, Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court equally held
in the former NSA’s favour and declared that his detention was illegal.
Justice Ojukwu granted him bail
in the sum of N200 million in the first with two sureties.
According to the judge, the sureties
must be civil servants of not lower than grade level 16, or, must be owners of
landed property in any highbrow area of Abuja and must submit the original
title documents to the registry of the court.
The judge further said that such
sureties are also to submit to the court, their evidence of tax payments for
2015, 2016, and 2017.
In order to guarantee Mr Dasuki’s
bail, Justice Ojukwu also ordered that the former NSA or either of his sureties
should pay the sum of N100 million to the court’s account which, which she
added that could only be taken back after the completion of the case.
These were tougher conditions
than the N250 million bail granted him in 2015.
Dissatisfied
Mr Dasuki requested for a bail
variation but the trial court declined. With this outcome, the former NSA
approached the Court of Appeal in Abuja, for a variation of the bail
conditions.
On November 22, the Court of
Appeal in a unanimous judgement by a three-member panel led by Justice Stephen
Adah abolished the trial court’s requirement that Mr Dasuki should produce a
Level 16 civil servant, who must own a property worth N100 million within the
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as surety.
Mr Adah held that it was an
‘oversight’ on the part of the court to have included civil servants as
sureties.
The judge, instead, ordered that
Mr Dasuki should produce two sureties, with property worth N100 million within
the FCT.
The November 22, judgement of the
appellant court was a review of its earlier judgment delivered on July 13, on
the original appeal the former NSA filed against the stringent conditions,
according to him.
Before the later judgement by the
appeal court, the court had granted Mr Dasuki bail in the sum of N100 million
with two sureties in like sum
The court held that the sureties
must be public servants not below the rank of grade-level 16, with the federal
or state government or any of its agencies and shall provide a valid document
for his or her status to the registrar of the Court below.
The court also ordered the
federal government to pay Mr Dasuki N5 million for holding him against the
provisions of section 35 (6) of the constitution which gives every Nigerian the
right to free movement.
Dissatisfied with the bail
conditions, Mr Dasuki, in another application before the appellate court, asked
for a further review.
At a point, Mr Dasuki said he
would no longer appear in court until his right to bail is enforced.
‘Freedom’
Dasuki was
released on the directive of Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar
Malami, who had defended his illegal incarceration in the past but on
Tuesday ordered his release.
He was released on the same day
as Omoyele Sowore, an activist who is being prosecuted for calling for a
revolution against bad governance.
The government, which had come
under intense criticism from local and foreign observers since its illegal
detention of Mr Sowore, eventually buckled.
Meanwhile, the former NSA, who
spoke during a radio interview with the Voice of America, Hausa Service, on
Wednesday, said he is ready to stand trial.
“Of course, I stopped going to
the court because I was granted bail but the government refused to release me
and I said whenever the bail order is complied with I will appear before the
court and defend myself. I am ready,” Mr Dasuki said.
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