Former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, accused of diverting $2.1 billion meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram on Friday challenged the Federal Government’s right to put him on trial.
Dasuki, who was national security adviser to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, asked the High Court Friday to dismiss all charges against him because the government flouted court orders to release him on bail.
He said the charges cannot be lawfully prosecuted by a government in brazen disobedience of the court’s order.
Dasuki has been detained for nearly two months despite three different courts granting him bail on stiff conditions.
President Muhammadu Buhari said December 31 his government would not release Dasuki to allow him to jump bail.
Buhari has blamed Dasuki for deaths, abductions of civilians and for making children orphans because soldiers were not adequately equipped to fight Boko Haram’s Islamic extremist fighters.
Dasuki has said in a written statement that he diverted the money on Jonathan’s orders, including more than $50 million in cash removed from the Central Bank at night to pay delegates to nominate Jonathan as his party’s presidential candidate.
Jonathan lost March 2015 elections to Buhari, who promised to curb massive corruption and halt the six-year-old Islamic uprising that has killed some 20,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.
The case was adjourned until Feb. 4.
Other accused persons are former Director of Finance and Administration in the Office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu, and a former Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Aminu Baba-Kusa.
The case was earlier stalled on Thursday due to the absence of the defence counsel who wrote to the court that he had to be in Kogi state for an election petition matter.
The court had on Thursday compelled the Federal Government to produce Dasuki to answer criminal charges brought against him.
The trial judge, Justice Baba Yusuf had earlier chided the government over its failure to bring Dasuki to court.
The court at that point stood down the trial for two hours and insisted that the trial will not be conducted until Dasuki had been brought before him as required by law.
Dasuki was brought to the court around 11:00am in compliance with the court order under a tight security.
But the trial could not go ahead because of the absence of his counsel.
Justice Baba Yusuf had on December 18, 2015 granted bail to Dasuki and the rest of his co-accused bail in the sum of N250m with one surety in relation to 19 counts of misappropriation of about N32bn meant for purchase of arms.
Also on December 21, 2015 Justice Peter Affen granted bail to Dasuki and his co-defendants with respect to another 22 counts of misappropriation of about N13bn, which was part of the arms fund, in the sum of N250m with two sureties in like sum.
But upon being released from prison after meeting the bail conditions, Dasuki was reportedly re-arrested by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).
It is also recalled that Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja had on Wednesday ordered the Federal Government to produce Dasuki before him on February 16 to answer another sets of criminal charges.
Justice Ademola maintained that it was wrong of the government to have expected the court to conduct a criminal trial in the absence of the defendant and in violation of the law.
Buhari has been accused of running a witch-hunt against officials of the former administration and of settling old scores against Dasuki, who was the army officer who arrested Buhari when he was overthrown in a 1980s palace coup after briefly serving as a military dictator.
The Nigerian leader last week ordered an investigation into serving and former top military officers over their roles in the purchase of military hardware.
