According to Daily Sun, Dasuki, on Thursday,
December 31, begged Buhari to let him go on
the bail the Federal High Court in Abuja,
granted him.
Sambo Dasuki, during one of his
appearances
in court.
Counsel to Dasuki, Alhaji Ahmed Raji (SAN),
who spoke to Daily Sun yesterday, said: “I
would want to appeal to Mr. President to please
allow my client to enjoy the bail that was
granted to him. I want to beg him in the name
of God. I cannot join words with the president. I
have the greatest respect for him, both in his
official and personal capacities. My appeal is
just that I am begging him in the name of God
to allow my client to enjoy his bail.”
Recall that Buhari on Wednesday, December
30, during his first presidential media chat on
NTA, said he could not release Dasuki and
the radio Biafra director, Nnamdi Kanu
because they would jump bail as the charges
against them are serious.
But in a reaction to the President’s claim,
legal luminaries on Thursday, December 31,
gave different explanations to the continued
detention of the accused persons after they
have been granted bail.
Speaking also on the continued detention of
the duo, Prince Lanke Odogiyan, the former
President of the Nigerian Bar Association
(NBA), described President Buhari’s stance as
a demonstration of dictatorship.
He warned that Buhari’s refusal to release
Dasuki and Kanu on bail was a slide into
lawlessness, and pleaded with the NBA,
human rights organisations and other non-
governmental groups to call Buhari to order
and halt the country from sliding into
anarchy.
“It’s disobedience of court order and if it’s not
checked, it can lead to consequences beyond
our imaginations. It’s a manifestation of
dictatorial tendencies and it should not be
encouraged. The president must be advised by
his legal handlers. If he is not satisfied with an
order of court, the appropriate thing to do is to
appeal. But he can’t disobey it, he can’t ignore
it.
“The Nigerian Bar Association, NGOs and human
rights bodies will speak with one voice to call
Mr. President to order. We have to be careful
so that we don’t slide into anarchy. No
government should pick and choose what orders
to obey,” Odogiyan said.
But in divergent opinion, Chief Ladi Rotimi-
Williams (SAN), said Buhari is acting in the
interest of the entire country, saying: “The
president is at a vantage point to know what is
good for the nation at any given time. Sambo
Dasuki is a very powerful man and you don’t
take such powerful men lightly. I am sure he
(Buhari) has placed the interest of the nation
over and above the interest of Sambo Dasuki,
ditto for Kanu. He is not doing so because he
doesn’t like their faces. The interest of the
nation overrides everything else.”
Speaking also, Mr. Hannibal Uwaifo,
President of the African Bar Association,
posited that Buhari is on track. According to
him, it is not right to allege that the
President is the one behind the continued
detention of Dasuki and Kanu. He said the
duo is facing the repercussion of infringing
on the country’s laws.
Also, Mr. Monday Ubani, former Chairman of
the Ikeja branch of NBA, claimed that
Buhari’s statements might have been
misconstrued.
“Whatever the president has said, he can’t play
the roles of the legislature, executive, and the
judiciary. The judiciary will certainly handle the
cases that are before it. The president can only
execute what the judiciary has said. So, I don’t
want whatever the president has said to be
taken out of proportion. What I understand the
president to be saying actually, which he may
not have put in a way that every person would
understand, is that we can’t allow a system
where prominent people alleged to have
committed heinous crimes are given all manner
of luxuries after they have put a lot of people in
problem and they can’t stay here and answer
the charges; they now want to go abroad for
treatment while this same thing is not extended
to the poor,” Ubani said.
Meanwhile, the ongoing trial of Dasuki had
taken a political undertone as reports
emerged that a statement issued by Dr. Cairo
Ojougboh, vice chairman (South-South) of the
Peoples Democratic Party, on Wednesday,
December 30, declared support for President
Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s
campaign against corruption, saying the PDP
has disowned itself from every party member
involved in the theft of the $2.1 billion arms
deal.
However, aside Dasuki who had so far been
the scapegoat in the $2.1 billion arms scam,
a former minister of state for finance, Bashir
Yuguda, a former director of finance at the
office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu, a former
governor of Sokoto state, Attahiru Bafarawa,
and his son, Sagir Bafarawa have all been
alleged to be involved in the scandal.
President Buhari while speaking on the falling
economy of the country recently, hinted
that anyone found guilty in the $2.1billion
Dasuki arms scandal will lose all his or her
property to the Federal Government .
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