BEVERLY HILLS, February 08, (THEWILL) – A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court sitting before Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf has denied the embattled former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, the bid to regain his freedom and have the charges preferred against him quashed, affirming that the EFCC or DSS never flouted court order on bail by re-arresting him.
Justice Baba-Yusuf, while delivering ruling on an application brought before it by Dasuki, held that, among the three issues raised, the only major contention was whether or not the complainant – the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was guilty of contempt over Dasuki’s re-arrest after fulfilling the bail conditions earlier granted him.
Dasuki in his application had sought for an order of the court prohibiting EFCC from further prosecution before the court, or any other; an order discharging him of all charges brought against him and stay of further proceedings for enforcement of his fundamental human rights, having been re-arrested on fulfilling his bail conditions relying on Section 6 (6)a of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The court in its ruling averred that, “it is clear that for a party to be said to be guilty of going against an order of court, the said order must be directed at the party and if it is not directed, party cannot be held liable, as such, the order on the N250 million bail granted him was directed at the Comptroller General of Prisons.”
Aligning itself with submissions of the applicant that the court has the duty to protect itself from disparage in performing its judicial functions, Justice Baba-Yusuf however said the actions of EFCC and Department of State Security (DSS) were not contemptuous, as there was no order made against Dasuki’s re-arrest.
In dismissing the application, the court noted, “Section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) does not apply to the application as it is not based on the information before the court.”
The court subsequently adjourned the matter to March 23, 2016, for trial.
However, Dasuki’s lawyer, Ahmed Raji, complained about the continuous detention of his client at the DSS, while the EFCC was the prosecutor in the matter, stating that ‘the stranger’ was just an interloper who had no say in the matter, as such, it would deal with the issue through the due process by filing for enforcement of fundamental rights.
Story by David Oputah
