Colonel Sambo Dasuki, former National Security Adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, was on Monday granted bail after being detained by the Nigerian government for over two years.
It would not be the first time that the courts were doing so. Earlier decisions of the courts have been shunned by the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration which continues to insist that Dasuki remains a person of high risk to the security of the country.
The latest bail granted to Dasuki may yet go the way of others as the government had also slammed corruption charges on the former presidency strongman.
The Monday judgment was granted by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court, Abuja. She granted bail to Dasuki in the sum of N200m with two sureties in like sum, and ruled that “the long and continued detention” of the applicant since December 29, 2015, could not be justified.
“The respondents have not successfully justified the long and continued detention of the defendant. Based on the circumstances of this case and the established facts, the honourable court is of the humble but firm opinion and as affirmed by superior authorities that the applicant (Dasuki) has made out a case to warrant the intervention of this court,” she said.
She added, “The 1st and 2nd respondents, (the DSS and its Director-General, Mr. Lawal Daura), cannot impose custodial punishment on the SAN) – to focus on prosecuting Dasuki based on the “fresh” case of money laundering they claimed to have against him instead of sticking to a “pyrrhic victory” of holding him in unlawful detention.
“What this court is saying, in essence, is that the respondents should focus on prosecuting the applicant and not on the pyrrhic victory of holding him in an unlawful detention.
“When it comes to the rule of law and the constitution, if the applicant is found culpable for the alleged offences, he should be visited with the full wrath of the law if he so deserves.
“The law remains that the burden of proving the illegality or the unconstitutionality of the fresh allegations is on the respondents,” she said.
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Justice Ojukwu described the detention as “an aberration of the rule of law,” insisting that none of the reasons given by the respondents could serve as justification for the long detention.
She also debunked the allegation that Dasuki would constitute a threat to national security, arguing that the fresh money laundering case which the respondents claimed to have against him would not affect national security.
“It is clear that the applicant has been in detention under the custody of the 1st and 2nd defendants (DSS and its DG) since December 29, 2015.
“Since the applicant has been made to honour the said invitation, why is he still in custody of the 1st and 2nd respondents for about two and a half years?
“This query is also in view of the fact that the respondents have averred that they are not standing on the way of the applicant to actualise the bail granted him.
“The continued detention of the applicant by the respondents despite the bail granted to him by the courts in other matter is an aberration of the rule of law, “ Ojukwu averred.
The Monday judgment comes nearly two years after the Economic Community of West African States Court of Justice in Abuja, in its own verdict delivered on October 4, 2016, ordered his unconditional release from illegal custody. The Nigerian government refused to honour the judgment.
“The continued detention of the applicant, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.), by the operatives of the 1st respondent (DSS) under the instructions of the 2nd respondent (the DG) since December 29, 2015, till date without granting him an administrative bail is a violation of his fundamental right to liberty under section 35 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999,” the ECOWAS court ruled.
