The
Absence of Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja
stalled the ruling scheduled fro yesterday on whether or not the
continued detention of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo
Dasuki was legal.
Dasuki, who is on trial before the court on
charges of money laundering and illegal possession of firearms, had
challenged his continued detention and urged the court to either quash
the charge against him or halt proceedings indefinitely until he was
released from detention.
The ex-NSA, in a motion argued by his
lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), accused the prosecution of violating an
earlier of the court, admitting him to bail. He urged the court not to
further indulge the prosecution by allowing it to continue with
proceedings in the case.
Justice Ademola was expected to rule
yesterday on whether or not Dasuki's continued detention by the
Department of State Services (DSS) was a violation of his earlier orders
granting him bail and permitting him to travel abroad for medical
reasons.
When parties got to court yesterday, they were informed by court officials that the judge was not available.
It was learnt that the judge's absence was in relation to the court's Easter vacation which was still on as at yesterday.
No
date has been fixed for the ruling as an official of the court said it
was the prerogative of the judge only to determine when to schedule for
judgement or ruling.
Similar application by Dasuki had been rejected by two judges in earlier rulings.
Justice
Peter Affen of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
had, in a ruling on March 4 this year, held thaT Dasuki's application
lacked merit.
The judge further held that the order granting
bail to the defendant (Dasuki) did not preclude him from being
re-arrested by other agencies of the Federal Government in respect of
other alleged crime.
"Though, both the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission (EFCC) and the DSS are agencies of the Federal Government of
Nigeria, they are established under separate enactments and vested with
distinct legal persona, powers and responsibilities such that one is not
liable for action or inaction of the other.
"Even criminal
prosecution is undertaken by them separately in the name of the Federal
Government of Nigeria merely to facilitate the due administration of
justice, which does not alter the mark of separate and distinct legal
identities.
"This being so, the inevitable conclusion to reach is
that the applicant has not made out a proper case of disobedience of the
order made by this court on December 21, 2015 and therefore there is no
legal or factual basis upon which the court can prohibit the
complainant from further prosecuting the instant charges not to mention
any other charge before any other court as prayed by the second
defendant.
"The point has already been made that the order
allegedly disobeyed or violated did not contemplate any government
agency other than the EFCC and that this court did not restrain the
arrest, the re-arrest or detention of the second defendant or any of the
defendants for further offences when alleged against them," the judge
said.
Justice Affen added that there was "no correlation"
between the prayer sought by Dasuki to discharge him and the alleged
disobedience of court order.
"I have found no correlation whatsoever
and none has been demonstrated between the alleged disobedience of court
order and being discharged of the offences charged.
"I take the
considered view that even if the second defendant/applicant has
succeeded in establishing the case of disobedience of the orders granted
on December 21, 2015, and I have already held that he did not do so,
that would not constitute valid grounds for discharging him of the
offences preferred against him," he said.
On February 9 this
year, Justice Hussein Baba Yusuf (also of the High Court of the FCT)
held, in a ruling on a similar application by Dasuki, held that the
ex-NSA was in error in his argument that his continued detention was in
breach of a subsisting order of the court.
No comments:
Post a Comment
place your comment