Former National Security Adviser (NSA), 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.
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