The Department of State Services (DSS) yesterday set free the
former national security adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) and the convener of
#RevolutionNow protest, Mr. Omoyele Sowore who were held for various alleged
felonious offences.
While Dasuki had been in detention since December 29, 2015, Sowore was first detained in August and released briefly four months after before he was re-arrested on December 6 by the DSS, less than 24 hours after he was released on bail.
The release of the two men was sequel to a directive given late Tuesday evening by the attorney general of the federation and minister of justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami.
“The Office of the Honourable Attorney General of the Federation has reviewed the pending criminal charges against the duo of Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) and Omoyele Sowore.
“Whilst the Federal High Court has exercised its discretion in granting bail to the defendants in respect of the charges against them, I am also not unmindful of the right of the complainant/prosecution to appeal or further challenge the grant of bail by the court having regards to extant legal provisions, particularly Section 169 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015.
“However, my office has chosen to comply with the court orders while considering the pursuit of its rights of appeal and/or review of the order relating to the bail as granted or varied by the courts.
“In line with the provisions of Sections 150(1) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and in compliance with the bail granted to Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) (as recently varied by the Court of Appeal) and the bail granted to Omoyele Sowore, I have directed the State Security Services to comply with the orders granting bail to the defendants and effect their release,” said Malami in a statement.
However, he urged the two men to observe the terms of their bail and refrain from engaging in any act that is inimical to public peace and national security as well as their ongoing trial, which will run its course in accordance with the laws of the land.
“I wish to reiterate again the utmost regard of my office for the entire judicial structure of Nigeria. This administration remains unrelenting in deepening the rule of law and the administration of justice in general,” he added.
Reacting to the development, the immediate past President of the Committee for Defence of Human Rights, Mr. Malachy Ugwummadu, said the release of the two men came too late.
“It is coming too late, too little in the sense that nothing precluded the same Federal Government and the AGF from directing the same releases soon after the express orders of courts.
“Recall that the orders sought to be obeyed now have been issued several months and weeks ago, depending on the case. This is a damage control effort that has very little impact because of the profound damage that has been occasioned by the indiscretion of this government and the presently established tradition of disobedience of court orders,” he added.
In his reaction, counsel for Dasuki, Mr. Mr. Ahmed Raji expressed gratitude to God, the president, the judiciary and all Nigerians for standing by them during his client’s travail.
“We thank God Almighty. We thank God Almighty. And we thank God Almighty. We thank the president of our country, the Attorney General of the Federation, the entire judiciary and all Nigerians. It is well with us. May God continue to be with all of us,” Raji said.
Sowore’s lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana also commented on the matter but urged the federal government to extend the gesture to the detained arrowhead of Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), Ibraheem el-Zakzaky and wife, Zeinat.
“We call on the Federal Government to release other political detainees and criminal suspects in line with valid and subsisting orders of courts.
“In particular, we request the federal government to liaise with the Kaduna State Government to withdraw the charge filed against Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zakzaky and his wife, Mrs Zeinat Elzakzaky, who have been detained since December 14, 2015.”
For his part, Mr. Mike Ozekhome, also a lawyer said the release of the two men is good for the rule of law.
Like Falana, he urged the federal government to also consider the release El-Zakzaky.
“I am happy the government has finally realised its faux pas and is seeing the same light which I saw since 2015, when I kicked against the illegal incarceration of Dasuki. It is never too late to take corrective measures and make amends.
“The government should add El-Zakzaky to the list of detainees to be released because the whole world, aside government apologists and grovellers, see all of them as political prisoners,” said Ozekhome in a statement.
The travail of Dasuki and Sowore
Dasuki is standing trial on allegations ranging from diverting the sum of $2.1 billion meant to fight insurgency in the northeast to money laundering and illegal possession of firearms.
He pleaded not guilty to all the charges and was admitted to bail by the respective courts where he is being tried.
On September 1, 2015, Justice Adeniyi Ademola who was then of the Federal High Court in Abuja granted dasuki bail on self-recognition shortly after he pleaded not guilty to the charges of illegal possession of firearms, and money laundering, among others.
On December 18, 2015 Justice Baba Yusuf of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Maitama, Abuja, granted bail in the sum of N250 million with one surety to Dasuki, who was being prosecuted on charges relating to the diversion of funds meant for procurement of arms needed to fight insurgency in the North-East.
On December 21, 2015 Justice Peter Affen of the same FCT High Court also granted bail to him and his co-defendants with respect to another set of 22 counts of misappropriation of about N13 billion in the sum of N250 million with two sureties in like sum.
DSS operatives on December 29, 2015, re-arrested and took Dasuki into custody shortly after he was released from Kuje Prison in Abuja on meeting the bail conditions imposed on him by the courts.
Displeased with his continued detention in violation of the court orders, Dasuki’s legal team approached the ECOWAS Court of Justice, to seek redress on behalf of the ex-NSA.
The regional court on October 4, 2016, ordered Dasuki’s unconditional release from illegal custody and awarded N15 million damages in his favour and against the federal government.
When the orders were not complied with, Dasuki filed a fundamental rights enforcement suit before Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
In her judgment delivered on July 2, 2018, the judge granted fresh bail in the sum of N200 million with two sureties.
Following an appeal by Dasuki, the Court of Appeal on June 13, 2019 reduced the bail conditions imposed on him by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court’s July 2, 2018 judgment.
The lead judgment, delivered by Justice Tinuade Akomolafe-Wilson, had reduced the bail sum from N200m to N100m, and also cancelled the condition that he must pay N100m to the account of the Federal High Court which would be retrievable only after the completion of the cases against hi.
Also cancelled was the Federal High Court’s condition that Dasuki’s sureties must submit evidence of tax payments for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017.
The appellate court also awarded N5 million damages against the federal government for the unlawful detention of the ex-NSA, who has been in the custody of DSS ssince December 29, 2015, despite a series of court orders directing his release.
Following a further application for the variation of the bail conditions, another three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, on November 22, 2019, cancelled the condition that Dasuki must produce a Grade Level 16 civil servant with landed asset worth N100 million within the Federal Capital Territory.
In the lead judgment delivered by Justice Stephen Adah, the court held that it was wrong for courts to make the presentation of civil servants sureties for bail.
In all these, the federal government refused to comply with the court orders.
Sowore
Sowore was arrested on August 3, 2019 in Lagos for calling for a form of social protest called the #RevolutionNow protest, which the federal government interpreted to be a call for an overthrow of the Buhari government. His co-defendant, Olawale Bakare, was later arrested in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
A judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, Justice Taiwo Taiwo, had earlier in September ordered Sowore’s release from custody after the expiration of the 45 days period granted the security agency to keep him in custody. The DSS refused to comply with the order.
The agency had also snubbed court’s bail granted to both Sowore and Bakare by Justice Ojukwu after they were arraigned before the judge.
But following the 24-hour ultimatum issued to the DSS by the judge on December 5, the two men were released from custody, but only for the operatives of the agency to invade the court on December 6, to rearrest Sowore.
The armed security agents who invaded the court disrupted proceedings and caused pandemonium within the court.
During the court invasion the judge fled her court and lawyers scrambled for safety.
Additional reports from ThisDay, Punch
