Since August 2015, Col. Sambo Dasuki has been on trial for illegal firearms possession and money laundering. Courts have ordered his release, which the Federal Government complied with yesterday, writes ERIC IKHILAE
SAMBO Dasuki, who served as the National Security Adviser (NSA) during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan, was arrested shortly after President Muhammadu Buhari took over the reins of power.
Dasuki has three different charges pending against him in courts. One is before Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja, while the other two are now before Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Maitama, Abuja.
He is prosecuted alone in the charge before the Federal High Court which relates to illegal arms possession and money laundering.
One of the cases before the FCT High Court is a 22-count charge in which Dasuki and others are accused of breach of trust and diversion of about N13billion by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
He is charged with a former governor of Sokoto State, Attahiru Bafarawa, Bafarawa’s son, Sagir, a former Director of Finance and Administration in the Office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu; a former Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda; and Sagir’s firm, Dalhatu Investment.
This charge was originally before Justice Peter Affen (also of the High Court of the FCT) in Maitama. It was later transferred to Justice Baba-Hussein before whom an earlier 19-count charge, also filed by the EFCC, was already pending, in which the ex-NSA and some others are accused of diverting N32bn part of the funds meant to procure arms.
Named with Dasuki in the 19-count charge are Salisu, Aminu Baba-Kusa and Baba-Kusa’s two firms – Acacia Holdings Ltd and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited.
First arraigned on August 31, 2015, and granted bail on self-recognition
The ex-NSA was first arraigned before Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja on August 31, 2015, on a one-count charge bordering on illegal possession of firearms, an offence punishable under section 27(i) (a)(i) of the Firearms Act Cap F28 LFN 2004.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge, following which the trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola, granted him bail on self-recognition, upon an application filed by his lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN).
The prosecution lawyer, M. S. Diri, did not oppose the application for bail, but left the issue at the court’s discretion.
Justice Ademola ordered Dasuki to deposit all his international passports with the court’s Deputy Registrar, Litigation. He ordered that the passports should be retrieved, if they are currently being held by other government agencies, and handed to the named court’s official.
The prosecution later amended the charge and raised it to five-counts and included the offence of money laundering.
Although Dasuki met the conditions attached to the bail granted him, he was briefly released by the DSS, but rearrested.
On December 18, 2015, Justice Baba Yusuf granted Dasuki bail at N250 million bail alongside Salisu Shuaibu, a director of finance in the office of the NSA and one Aminu Kusa. They were asked to provide a surety who owns a property in the FCT worth N250 million.
Justice Affen equally granted Dasuki and others, who were arraigned before him bail. When the case before Affen was moved to Justice Baba-Yusuf’s court upon complaint by the defence team that it amounted 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.
While the others were allowed on bail, the state held on to Dasuki on the grounds that he was being held in relation to separate offences, a position Dasuki challenged up to the Supreme Court.
And in its decision on March 2, 2018 Supreme Court rejected Dasuki’s claim that his continued detention was a violation of the bail earlier granted him. The court refused Dasuki’s request for the freezing of his trial pending when the state would agree to release him.
In the judgment, a five-man panel of the apex court headed by Justice Dattijo Muhammad noted in a judgment on two separate appeals by Dasuki that the trial initiated in 2015, had been frustrated at the High Court of the FCT by various interlocutory applications and appeals.
Instead of acceding to Dasuki’s prayer, the Supreme Court granted an order for accelerated hearing of the trial after dismissing Dasuki’s two appeals.
Dasuki had appealed to the Supreme Court against the judgments of the June 15, 2016 Court of Appeal, Abuja, which had affirmed the earlier separate rulings of the FCT High Court.
Both the FCT High Court and the Court of Appeal had dismissed Dasuki’s prayers, ruling that his re-arrest by the operatives of the DSS after he met his bail conditions and was released from Kuje prison on December 29, 2015, did amount to the disobedience of the trial court’s order granting him bail.
On October 4, 2016 the Community Court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) upheld a fundamental rights enforcement suit, with which Dasuki challenged his continued detention.
The ECOWAS Court, in a unanimous judgment of a three-man panel, read by Justice Chijioke Nwoke, also awarded N15m damages against the Federal Government.
It ordered the Federal Government to release him and his belongings that were seized from him by the state agents.
The court held that the Nigerian government was unable to substantiate the former NSA’s continued detention, concluding that the government’s act violated both national and international laws on the right of persons and citizens to personal liberty.
On realising the Nigerian government was unwilling to obey the decision by the sub-regional court, Dasuki again, returned to the Federal High Court with a fundamental rights enforcement application, similar to the one the ECOWAS upheld.
And in a judgment on July 2, 2018 Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court equally held in Dasuki’s favour, declared his detention illegal.
Justice Ojukwu granted Dasuki bail at N200m with two sureties who must be residents of Abuja. She said the sureties could be civil servants not less than Grade Level 16 in the employment of the Federal Government or private citizens not employed by the government.
If the sureties are Federal Government employees, they will deposit the certified copies of their letters of appointment and last promotion letters with the court, the judge said. But the judge said if they were private citizens not employed by the Federal Government, they must own properties in the Abuja metropolis and must submit the original title documents to the registry of the court.
Such sureties are also to submit to the court, their evidence of tax payments for 2015, 2016 and 2017.The judge also ordered that either of one of two sureties to be presented or Dasuki himself, should pay the sum of N100m to the court’s account which could only be taken back after the completion of the case against him, to guarantee the bail.
While the court ordered that Dasuki’s passport must remain in the custody of the court, it also ordered bailiffs to verify the addresses of the sureties.
Unable to meet the conditions and with the trial court’s unwillingness to vary the conditions, Dasuki headed for the Court of Appeal Abuja for a variation of the bail conditions, which the appellate court acceded to on November 22, 2019.
In a unanimous judgement on November 22, a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal expunged the requirement that Dasuki produced a Level 16 civil servant, who must own a property worth N100million within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as surety
Justice Stephen Adah, in the lead judgment, said the inclusion of civil servants as surety was an oversight on the part of the court.
He ordered that Dasuki should, instead, produce two sureties, with property worth N100m within the FCT.
The Court of Appeal’s judgment of November 22, 2019 was a review of its earlier judgment delivered on June 13, 2019 on the original appeal filed by Dasuki against the stringent conditions, he claimed were attached to the bail granted by Justice Ojukwu.
In the June 13, 2019 judgment, the Court of Appeal had ordered that Dasuki produce a surety, who must be a Level 16 official in the Civil Service of either the Federal or state government, who must own a property worth N100m within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
But, Dasuki found this part of the Court of Appeal judgment of June 13, 2019 difficult to meet and returned to the court, via an application, and prayed for a further review.
He stated in the application that it was difficult to find a Level 16 Civil Servant who could own a N100m worth of property in Abuja through his legitimate earnings.
Justice Stephen Adah, who read the Court of Appeal judgment on November 22, 2019, in the appeal marked: CA/A/806/2019, said the court’s decision to request that Dasuki produce a civil servant as surety, was an oversight.
“Of concern to us is that we as a court must be ready and sensitive enough not to do anything that will run against the laws of the land.
“The issue of involving civil servants or public officers in the service of the federation or the state in bail of people accused of offences has never been the practice anywhere that is civilised, and we should stop it at this level.
“It was an error that we allowed that to stay. So, it is in this respect that we will act ex debito justitiae (as a matter of right) ensure that that aspect of the condition is removed from the conditions of bail that were granted.”
Incidentally, while Dasuki moved from one court to another, challenging his detention, no meaningful progress was made in the three cases pending against. It is hoped that with his release, he will be able to prepare for his defence. (The Nation)
