$2b Arms Deal Scandal: Why Sambo Dasuki’s Court Trial Was Adjourned To 2016

Federal government has filed a fresh application seeking to stop the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki, from travelling abroad for medical treatment, has been adjourned by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja till January 20, 2016.

Recall that on November 3, the court headed by Adeniyi Ademola had granted Dasuki the permission to travel abroad for medical treatment, ordering an immediate release of his passport.

But in its fresh application on Thursday, December 3, counsel to the federal government, Oluseyi Opasanya, requested that the judge stays the proceedings in the November ruling.

According to the counsel, the new application, which now asked the court to suspend the order, takes precedence over the earlier application.

Adeniyi Ademola, the judge, adjourned the case after consultation with counsels of the plaintiff and the defendant.

Countering the new application, counsel to Colonel Dasuki, Ahmed Raji, argued that the previous application, which sought to revoke his client’s bail, was yet to be determined. He asked the court for a short adjournment to respond to the fresh application.

The court later fixed Monday for hearing of the application but eventually adjourned to January.

The embattled former NSA was after several weeks of besieging his residence arrested by the Department of State Services (DSS) last Monday in Abuja.

The DSS in turn handed him over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for interrogation over an alleged N300bn fraud.

The colonel had been summoned by an investigation panel set up by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to probe into the $2billion arms procured during the immediate past administration of Goodluck Jonathan.

Dasuki was later indicted by a presidential panel probing the procurement of arms in the armed forces from 2007 to 2015.

He was accused of using his office to award fictitious arms contracts, but he has denied the allegations, stating that former President Goodluck Jonathan approved all the contracts he awarded‎, an information the former president had since denied in far away Washington.

Meanwhile, as part of the ongoing investigations into how the office of the NSA shared funds meant for fighting Boko Haram, the EFCC investigators have detected another line of payment made to companies linked with Nduka Obaigbena, owner of Arise TV and Thisday publisher.

Also, Raymond Dokpesi was arrested by the EFCC on Tuesday, December 1, for being a party of the arms purchase scandal involving Dasuki, and the theft of N2.1billion from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

However he and his family have offered conflicting statements about why he received the money from Dasuki.