For Rejecting Secret Trial: Dasuki Man Of The Year
The embattled former National
Security Adviser (NSA) Col Sambo Dasuki (rtd) is pauluwadima.blogspot.com MAN
OF THE YEAR. He was chosen based on his principled stand that his trial for
illegal arms possession and money laundering should be in the open for all
Nigerians and the international community to have unfitted access to how he ran
the office for which he was accused of maladministration by the federal
government.
Recall that the federal government
had applied to the court to try Dasuki secretly. Read the links: http://leadership.ng/news/470032/fg-wants-secret-trial-for-dasuki
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/10/sambo-dasuki-protests-planned-secret-trial-by-fg/The federal government in mid-October applied to a federal high court in Abuja for a secret trial of former National Security Adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Mohammed Dasuki (rtd) in the criminal charges of unlawful possession of firearms and money laundering preferred against him.
Government also filed fresh charges against the ex-NSA which now include alleged retention of funds which formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act contrary to section 15 (2) (d) of Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011.
However, in a motion on notice argued by the prosecution counsel Mr. Shuaibu Labaran, the federal government applied to the court to grant secret trial of the ex-security chief for security of its witnesses billed to testify against the accused.
The application was brought to the court pursuant to section 36(4) of the 1999 constitution and section 232 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015.
Among others, the prosecution sought order to direct that the names and address of all its witnesses should not be disclosed in any record or report of proceedings that may be accessible to the public and that the witnesses be permitted to use pseudo name in the course of proceedings; to grant to its witnesses access to a non-public route to and from the court premises and court rooms; as well as to allow them use private witnesses room.
Apart from lawyers and accredited newsmen, the prosecution asked the court not to allow any member of the public to witness the trial and that the witnesses be permitted to wear facial masks while giving evidence against the ex-NSA.
Labaran who argued the motion submitted that the trial will suffer setback because the witnesses will not testify without secret trial for fear of reprisal from undisclosed places.
However, counsel to the accused Mr. Joseph Daudu, SAN, asked the court to dismiss the application for lacking merit and for being frivolous.
He told Justice Ademola that the names of the witnesses were already in the public domain at the instance of the prosecution adding that the application was a mere academic exercise that should not be granted by the court.
Dasuki is the man that deserved the credit
for the information emanating from the courts about how the NSA Office
allegedly operated under his watch. If the information from the courts on how
money was disbursed were proven to be against the law, Dasuki may have by his
action provided the opportunity to the National Assembly to redefine the role
of the National Security Adviser in peace time and in war time. There is no
doubt that Dasuki was a National Security Adviser in a war time, as Nigeria was
and is still waging insurgency war in the North East which President Muhammadu
Buhari had promised would be brought to an end this December.
By accepting an open trial, Dasuki
took away the initiative from the federal government that is adept in spinning
information effectively to suit its political purpose, to the point that even
the office of the president was forced to accept the receipt of two SUVs from
the NSA’s Office, under Dasuki. Because of Dasuki the anti-corruption war has
received greater impetus and he has therefore deepened Nigeria’s democracy. It
is obvious that by the time all the dusts settle at the completion of his
trial, Nigeria will no longer be the same.
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