The immediate-past National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), on Thursday told a Federal High Court in Abuja, that his continued detention by the Department of State Services was scaring off foreign investors from the country.
Dasuki, who spoke through his lawyer, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN), said his continued detention was a violation of the court’s order that granted him bail on September 1, 2015 and another that permitted him to travel abroad for medical treatment on November 3, 2015.
The ex-NSA, who is being prosecuted before Justice Adeniyi Ademola on four counts of money laundering and illegal possession of firearms, has been in the custody of the DSS since December 29, 2015.
Operatives of the DSS re-arrested him on December 29, 2015, shortly after his release from Kuje Prison in Abuja, upon fulfilling the bail conditions imposed on him by two other judges of the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja.
Daudu on Thursday urged Justice Ademola to stop the trial, prohibit the Federal Government from further prosecuting his client and make an order discharging the ex-NSA until the orders of the court were complied with.
While arguing his client’s application which was filed on February 11, 2016, Daudu said without being given access to his client by the DSS to prepare for the ex-NSA’s defence, the trial, if allowed to go on, would not be fair.
The lawyer added that his client’s continued detention would give foreign investors the impression that Nigeria was a country where court orders were not respected.
Daudu said, “The most obvious evidence of the breach of the orders of the court is that the defendant is still in custody, brought to this court by the Department of State Services.
“There is no magic or anything that can be said to dispute that. The effect of his (Dasuki’s) continued incarceration is that the orders, as contained in Exhibit A, has been flouted by the prosecution who wants the matter to continue.”
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