Before I go into the meat of this article, let me state this for
the purpose of record. The case of Sambo Dasuki, former national security
adviser (NSA), will become one of Nigeria’s unsolved mysteries.
His
trial will become a poltergeist of how power is exacted for submission and not
for justice. It will become an inscrutable patch of history and of government’s
confusion.
Dasuki
has been on trial for two years. When the Buhari government took off, its first
assignment was to probe the office of the NSA and the armed forces. After
months of thudding investigations, the government released a report alleging
that $2.1 billion was magicked from the treasury for bogus arms purchase by the
office of the NSA.
The
Department State Services (DSS) whisked Dasuki into custody and filed a charge
of illegal possession of firearms and money laundering against him at a federal
high court in Abuja. This particular charge was filed in 2015. But the case is
gasping for breath in court.
Also,
the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed a multi-billion naira
charge of financial fraud against the former NSA in 2016 at the Federal Capital
Territory high court, but the case, like the other one, sputters like a jalopy
in court. The DSS has refused to release him to face the trial.
It
is really stupefying that the case is snarling up in court. I would have
expected the government to act with dispatch since the former NSA is a suspect
of importance. Oddly, it is the government, Dasuki’s “housemaster”, that is
putting a wedge in his trial.
In
addition, it is clear to me that the government is not really concerned about
the enormity of Dasuki’s alleged offence, but about “keeping him out of
circulation”. He may be guilty or innocent of the charges against him, but he
is already doing time in a DSS cell.
However,
I find it perplexing Dasuki’s claim of “memory loss” in the N400m trial of
Olisa Metuh, former spokesman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). This claim
is absurd. It is simple, he either admits that he approved the release of the
funds to Metuh or he confutes the former PDP spokesman’s claim that he did.
I
think the former NSA may be trying to game the court by this stunt. Or is he so
dazed by the amounts of money his office released that he cannot recall this
particular transaction?
I
had expected Dasuki to do some explaining of how funds for arms purchase
allegedly ended up in the PDP campaign till. Nigerians deserve to know. It was
a perfect opportunity for the former NSA, who has come under a blitz of
accusations, to get his own side of the story into the public square.
I
believe Nigerians were expecting fecundating disclosures from a man, who has
been accused of gross financial malevolence, but has said little or nothing in
his own defence. I hope he puts citizens out of this “misery” on Friday when he
appears in court again.
In
conclusion, government prosecutors and the court must pace up in bringing
closure to trials linked to the $2.1 billion arms-purchase scandal. Nigerians
deserve a denouement to this drama.
Facebook: Fredrick Nwabufo, Twitter: @FredrickNwabufo
Source: The Cable
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