• Friday, April 19, 2024
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BusinessDay

Court releases Dasuki from detention the fifth time

Embattled Colonel Sambo Dasuki

A Federal High Court Abuja on Monday admitted former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd) to bail in the sum of N200m and two sureties in like sum.

This will be the fifth time the detained former NSA to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan will be granted bail since he was detained in 2015.

Before now, Dasuki had been granted bail by Justices Ademola Adeniyi (trd), Ahmed Mohammed, Hussein Baba-Yusuf and Peter Affen in various criminal charges both at the Federal High Court and the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu granted the bail while delivering judgment in a fundamental rights suit brought against the Federal government.

However, delivering judgment on the fundamental rights suit Monday, the judge who noted that the applicant’s motion is not connected to the earlier matters in which he had been granted bail, held that Dasuki’s continued detention since 2015 by agents of the Federal government is a gross violation of his fundamental rights and consequently ordered that he be released on bail.

The sureties, the court held, must be either be civil servants not below grade level 16 or private citizens are to deposit the sum of N100m with the registrar of the court which would be returned at the end of the trial.

They are also to submit copies of their passport photographs to the court, the court held.

The court while frowning at the continued detention of the former NSA by the Federal government, held that Dasuki’s detention is an aberration of the rule of law and the constitution, adding that no nation can aspire to greatness when the rule of law is flagrantly disobeyed.

Justice Ojukwu therefore ordered that Dasuki be released immediately the terms of his bail are fulfilled.