Abuja, Oct 4, 2016 – ECOWAS Court today ruled that the arrest incarceration of former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd) is unlawful, arbitrary and a violation of his right to liberty.
Dasuki had approached the court following refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to release him even after Nigerian courts have granted him bail with a leave to travel abroad for health reasons and has remained in the custody of the Department of State Security Service(DSS).
The Former National Security Adviser Colonel Sambo Dasuki, the former Minister of State for Finance Mallam Bashir Yuguda, former Governor of Sokoto State Alhaji Attahiru Bafarawa and three others are on trial on allegations of diversions, misappropriation and breech of public trust in respect of N19.4 Bllion.
But ECOWAS court ordered that he be immediately released from the custody of the Department of State Service, whose operatives re-arrested him shortly after he was released from prison on bail with respect to his ongoing trial.
The court ruled that it was wrong for the Federal Government to continue to detain him over undisclosed offences after he had been granted bail by three different courts before which he had been arraigned.
in a unanimous judgment of a three-man panel read by Justice Friday Chijioke Nwoke, also awarded N15m damages against the Federal Government. It ordered government to release Dasuki immediately and also his properties that were confiscated by state’s agents.
The court, which held that the Nigerian State was unable to substantiate its continued detention of Dasuki, also faulted the search of his houses in Abuja and Sokoto without valid search warrant.
