An Abuja High Court sitting at Maitama on Thursday fixed Monday, February 8, to rule on an application by the embattled former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, rtd, seeking to quash the N32billion money laundering charge that was preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf fixed the adjourned date after counsel to Dasuki, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN) and counsel to federal government, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs (SAN), had addressed the court on a motion praying for the release of Dasuki.
In the motion argued by Dasuki’s counsel, the court was urged to prohibit the federal government from further prosecuting him or further seeking any indulgence from the court until the bail granted Dasuki is allowed to be enjoyed.
Daudu argued that the federal government cannot lawfully prosecute Dasuki having been in contempt of the court.
He premised his argument on the fact that Justice Yusuf had on December 18 last year granted Dasuki bail and that after perfecting the bail conditions, he was allegedly rearrested on the order of the federal government and was taken to the custody of the Department of the State Security Service (DSS).
He said since Dasuki was rearrested on December 29, when the bail conditions had been perfected, he had since been kept away from his lawyers and family members.
The counsel therefore urged the court to compel the federal government to obey the bail conditions granted Dasuki and allow him to enjoy the liberty of freedom in line with the law that presumed him innocent until contrary was proved.
He said the government and its agencies have no moral and legal rights to prosecute Dasuki having been in contempt of three high courts that had admitted him on bail but which were not obeyed.
Daudu also urged that the court compel the federal government to obey the court should order and save the judiciary from embarrassment of disobedience. “Judges must assert the efficacy of their orders,” he concluded.
However, while opposing the motion, counsel to the federal government, Mr. Rotimi Jacobs, informed the Judge that the motion was an abuse of the court process because there was no evidence placed before the court that the accused was rearrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Rotimi, who claimed to be representing EFCC in the instant case, disclosed that it was the DSS, another arm of the security agency of the federal government that re-arrested Dasuki.
He advised Dasuki to evoke section 46 of the Constitution and institute a civil action to challenge his arrest and enforce his fundamental right to his liberty.
Justice Baba Yusuf will on Monday deliver his ruling on the motion.
Dasuki who is facing trial alongside the erstwhile Director of Finance in the Office of the NSA, Mr. Shuaibu Salisu and a former Executive Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Aminu Baba-Kusa , is praying the court to discharge him from the 19-count criminal charge.
Also charged over the alleged fraud were two firms- Acacia Holding Limited and Reliance Referal Hospital Limited, which the anti-graft agency identified as conduit pipes through which the N32bn was allegedly siphoned from accounts the office of the NSA operated with both the Central Bank of Nigeria and other financial institutions.
The funds were allegedly distributed to delegates that attended the Presidential Primary Election the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, held in Abuja.