The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court,Tuesday, declined to allow<\/p>\n
the Federal Government to try the former National Security Adviser, NSA,
\nCol. Sambo Dasuki, retd, secretly.<\/p>\n
The four-count criminal charge pending against Dasuki before the court
\nborders on money laundering and his alleged illegal possession of
\nfirearms.<\/p>\n
While refusing the application by FG, trial Justice Ademola Adeniyi
\nordered that the defendant who has been in detention since November 3,
\n2015, should be granted access to his family members and lawyers.<\/p>\n
The court said there was no point for it to make an order allowing FG to
\nmask the witnesses billed to testify in the matter or to allow them to
\nbear pseudo names.<\/p>\n
Justice Adeniyi noted that FG had in the charge against Dasuki, supplied
\nnames and addresses of the 11 witnesses it intends to call against the
\ndefendant, a document he said was already in the public domain.<\/p>\n
Besides, the court maintained that there was no evidence to indicate that
\nthe life of any of the witnesses was being threatened in any way,
\nstressing that the defendant was not charged for acts of terrorism.<\/p>\n
It therefore \u00fdrefused FG\u2019s application for only lawyers and accredited
\nJournalists to be allowed inside the court room during the trial.<\/p>\n
Dasuki\u2019s lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji, SAN, earlier told the court that
\noperatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, kept his client
\nincommunicado since December 29, 2015, when he was re-arrested upon
\nperfection of his bail conditions.<\/p>\n
Raji who insisted that the protracted incarceration of his client has
\ngreatly hampered his right to prepare his defence, told the court that the
\nDSS recently blocked Dasuki\u2019s 95 years old father from seeing him.<\/p>\n
He said Dasuki\u2019s aged father who had gone to see his detained son along
\nwith the former Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Ibrahim Dasuki and other family
\nmembers, was denied access to the defendant.<\/p>\n
Consequently, Justice Adeniyi, ordered the security agency to grant Dasuki
\naccess to his visitors on Tuesdays and Thursdays for at least two hours.<\/p>\n
He said such meetings should take place in the Interview Room at the DSS
\nHeadquarters and the Federal High Court premises in Abuja.<\/p>\n
Specifically, the court directed that the defendant should on each of the
\nvisiting days, be granted access to four lawyers and two members of his
\nfamily.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Abuja Division of the Federal High Court,Tuesday, declined to allow the Federal Government to try the former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki, retd, secretly. The four-count criminal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n