Weapons found in my house belong to NSA office, Dasuki tells court •Says his continued detention arbitrary, illegal

the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Wednesday, was told that the weapons found  at Asokoro residence of  the former national Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd), barely 48 hours after he left office in 2015, belong to the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

The weapons were said to be for the use of the security details attached to him as the  NSA for protection purposes.

These were contained in  Colonel Dasuki’s statement made to the operatives of the Department of State Security Service (DSS), tendered and admitted as exhibit by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, in the ongoing trial of  Colonel Dasuki on charges of unlawful possession of arms.

A prosecution witness, Mr Samuel Ogbu, who is an operative of DSS, indicated this when he was asked to read in the open court, the statement made by  Colonel Dasuki, during his interrogation by DSS before he was charged to court.

Under cross examination by counsel to  Colonel Dasuki, Mr Ahmed Raji, the witness said that  ColonelDasuki, in his statement, confirmed that weapons where for the ONSA and for the protection of the NSA.

The witness also said that  Colonel Dasuki claimed in his written statement that the weapons were to be returned to the ONSA by the security details at the end of the day.

Ogwu, who was asked by Colonel Dasuki’s lawyer to read a portion of the statement of the defendant to the open court, admitted that  Colonel Dasuki in the first paragraph of his statement, made it clear that the weapons belong to the ONSA and not his personal belonging.

The witness further said he could not remember the date  ColonelDasuki left office as NSA but however, insisted that the interrogation was conducted after he had left office.

Meanwhile, Colonel Dasuki, has told the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice, sitting in Abuja, that the Federal Government has no legal or moral justification for his continued incarceration.

Colonel Dasuki, who spoke through his counsel, Robert Emukperuo, on Wednesday, while making his final address, predicated his stance on Sections 293-296 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ACJA 2015, which outlines the procedure for keeping a suspect in detention for not more than two weeks.

“To accentuate the illegality of the arrest and detention of the applicant, the ACJA 2015, S.293 to 296 thereof, set out the procedure for the detention of any person pending trial or investigation. And in summary, that procedure requires judicial intervention by a magistrate for it to be carried out and the maximum detention time-frame is two weeks,” he  said.

Emukperuo had earlier filed an application to amend the originating application by including additional reliefs, a request the court granted, ordering the defendant to respond, if any, within 15 days to the issues raised in the amendment.

He prayed the court to order the release of his client and as well, order the government to pay N500 million as compensation to  Colonel Dasuki.