Dasuki Drags FG To ECOWAS Court, N500m Demanded For Damages
Dasuki Drags FG To ECOWAS Court, N500m Demanded For Damages
Following his continued detention despite meeting his bail
conditions, former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki, has
filed a suit against the Federal Government before the ECOWAS Court in
Abuja and is demanding payment of N500 million damages for alleged
rights infringement.
In the suit filed by his lawyer, Robert Emukpoeruo, Dasuki asked the
court to declare his continued detention as “unlawful, arbitrary and an
egregious violation” of his human rights. Dasuki in the suit also asked
the court to declare that the alleged invasion of his Abuja and Sokoto
residences on July 16 and 17, 2015 and the “forceful and unlawful
seizure” of his properties, “without any lawful order or warrant”
constituted a gross violation of his fundamental rights and offended the
country’s treaty obligations as a signatory to the listed legal
instruments.
No date has been set for hearing of the suit. In a related
development, Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja
yesterday ordered the Federal government to produce him in court on
February 16th. Dasuki’s lawyer, Joseph Daudu (SAN), told the court that
his client was abducted by security agents six weeks ago to an unknown
destination. He told Justice Ademola that since the ex-NSA was whisked
away, all efforts by his family and his lawyers to access him had been
scuttled. Justice Ademola said:
“I am worried that the accused is not here. I do not want
to set a bad precedent. Except the court gives express order for the
defendant not to be in court, the accused must be brought to court from
wherever he is. The accused must be here because I am not sure if what I
am doing right now in the absence of the accused is not an illegality.
Government and whoever is concerned must endeavour to do the necessary
thing. The accused having been formally charged in court, must be
produced in court for trial on the appointed days in compliance with the
provisions of the law,”
