Again Court Orders Release of Dasuki on Bail

Alex Enumah in Abuja

Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Federal High Court Abuja on Monday admitted former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), to bail in the sum of N200 million and two sureties in like sum.

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

Before now, Dasuki had been granted bail by Justices Ademola Adeniyi (rtd), 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).

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 civil servants not below grade level 16 or private citizens and are to deposit the sum of N100 million 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 while frowning on 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.