Dasuki’s Debacle : EFCC Arrests And Withdraws, SSS Takes Over As He remains In Detention
The Oasis Reporters
March 3, 2018
Former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki is standing trial at The High Court Of The Federal Capital Territory Over an alleged misappropriation of N32bn arms fund in Abuja.
He has been on trial for over two years now, since on Friday January 22, 2016.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, the NSA is asking for a stay of proceedings because he is opposed to his arrest and detention by the EFCC and all his applications for bail that were duly granted, were frustrated.
Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court had granted him bail. So did other High Courts headed by Justices Peter Affem and Hussein Baba Yusuf, yet Sambo Dasuki remained in detention.
The matter lingered on until it got to the Supreme Court which gave it’s ruling, Friday.
The EFCC was smart. While Dasuki was fretting over his bail, EFCC looked the other way and winked at the Controller of Prisons in Abuja who magnanimously opened the big and wide Kuje prisons and said to him : ‘you are free to go’.
In stepping out of the gate on December 29, 2015, men of the State Security Services, SSS were waiting. They whisked him off, making a complete nonsense of all the bails granted him. But his appeal for a stay of execution was still ongoing.
Since the court case against the EFCC was the bone of contention, the Supreme Court ruled that the multiple bails granted him had been complied with, because he was duly released, therefore his detention was no longer at the instance of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that put him on trial.
In a unanimous judgement, Justice Ajembi Eko said that the EFCC cannot be held responsible for the continued detention of the former NSA since the detention was carried out by the State Security Service (SSS).
Justice Eko said that from the claims and counter-claims of Mr. Dasuki and EFCC, it was clear that he was re-arrested at the premises of the Kuje Prison on December 29, 2015 by the SSS.
The Supreme Court therefore affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal and the FCT High Court which had in their separate decisions held that EFCC cannot be held responsible for the detention of Dasuki by DSS.
Justice Eko said the appeal brought by Dasuki lacked merit and constituted an abuse of court process and therefore dismissed it.
The Court ordered Dasuki and the EFCC to go back to the FCT High Court to continue with the trial in the charges brought against him by the anti-graft agency.
Should Dasuki now go back to the High Court and sue the State Security Services, SSS for holding him?
That may seem reasonable but unwise because the trial will still continue at the High Court being prosecuted by the EFCC, ab initio. At least, with a Supreme Court endorsement.
Even if he gets released by the SSS, nothing stops the Nigerian Police or whichever other agency from arresting and detaining him once again. This seems to be like a game of musical chairs, and the only man not smiling in the concert, is Sambo Dasuki.
