THE federal high court in Abuja on Thursday, April 6, affirmed the bail granted to Sambo Dasuki, a retired colonel and former national security adviser, NSA, in a charge of unlawful possession of firearms and money laundering preferred against him by the federal government.

Justice Ahmed Mohammed, presiding judge, affirmed the bail shortly after taking Dasuki’s plea in the amended seven-count charge.

The judge said that since Oladipo Opeseyi, prosecution counsel, did not object to the bail of the former NSA, the court had to affirm same. He ordered the defendant to continue to enjoy the bail condition granted him in 2015 when he was first arraigned.

Despite being granted bail by various courts, Dasuki has remained in the custody of the Department of Security Services.

Dasuki had in 2015 been admitted to bail by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, but the bail order was not obeyed by the federal government.

Other bails granted by Justice Peter Affen and Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf of the FCT high court were also ignored.

The ECOWAS court also ordered the immediate release of Dasuki, who is accused of mismanaging billions of dollars meant for purchase of arms, describing his detention as illegal and unlawful.

All the court orders have, however, been ignored.

In the amended charge on Thursday, April 6, Dasuki was accused of being in possession of prohibited firearms without the requisite licences in July 2015 contrary to Section 28 of the Firearm Act Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004.

He was specifically alleged to have been in possession of Trevor Rifles at his residence in Abuja.

Besides the firearms, Dasuki was also accused of money-laundering and was specifically said to have been in possession of $40,000, N5million and £20,000 allegedly in his house in July 2015 and said to be proceeds of unlawful act contrary to Section 15 (3) of the money laundering prohibition act 2011.

The amended charge also indicated that $150,000 and N37 million being part of proceeds of unlawful act was also found in his Sokoto residence on July 16, 2015.

When the charges were read, Dasuki denied all of them.

—  Apr 17, 2017 @ 01:00 GMT

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