₦airaland Forum

The Court of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, on Tuesday declared the arrest and detention of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, as unlawful and arbitrary.
The court also held that the further arrest of Mr. Dasuki by government on November 4, after he was granted bail by a court of law, amounts to a mockery of democracy and the rule of law.

Mr. Dasuki is facing multiple trials for alleged diversion of $2.1 billion meant for the purchase of arms in the immediate past administration.

He is also accused of illegal possession of fire arms.
He approached the ECOWAS court after he was rearrested by members of Nigeria’s State Security Service shortly after meeting his bail conditions in November last year. He has remained in the custody of the SSS since his arrest.

On Tuesday, a three-member panel led by Justice Friday Nwoke said Nigeria’s government was wrong in arresting Mr. Dasuki without a search warrant, adding that the pattern of arrest negates the provisions of Section 28 of the Nigerian Police Act.
According to the said section, a superior police officer may authorise the search of a resident belonging to a suspect assumed to be in illegal possession of an item, if the officer so authorised has a search warrant.


The court also noted that Section 143 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, allows that where such a search is proposed by the police or other authorities, an application must first be made to a court of law and and granted after due consideration of the said application, in compliance with section 144 of the ACJA.

The court further said the submission of Nigerian government that it came with the search warrant to Mr. Dasuki’s house but could not give it to him, because officers at his residence resisted the security operatives, was ineffective in proving its points.

Acording to the judge, the search warrant presented before the ECOWAS court was not certified and therefore lacks verifiable authenticity.

The court said government failed to prove its reasons for arresting and detaining Mr. Dasuki, as documents presented before it only emphasised the allegations of fraud and illegal possession of arms.

It added that the ECOWAS court was not set to determine whether or not the possession of arms by Mr. Dasuki amounted to an offence or not.
It however decided that the arrest was unlawful, arbitrary and a violation of local and international rights to liberty.

The court ruled that Federal Government should pay a sum of N15 million as damages to Mr. Dasuki.
It also decided that the cost of litigation will be summed up and charged against the Nigerian government.

koboko69:
Can't u see the moniker. Rapistomenka, does that kind of person sound normal to u? See the obsession with omenka. All these kids have destroyed this section

NgeneUkwenu:
You don start to whine mouth again?

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its candidate in the Edo State governorship election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu contested against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), not the All Progressives Congress (APC), describing the APC victory in the election as “victory only made possible by the use of federal government agencies to subvert the will of the people.”


Fayose
Governor Fayose, who lamented that the win at all cost attitude of the APC was inimical to the sustenance of democracy in the country, said it was sad that instead of the people of Edo State electing their own governor, the APC conspired with INEC to foist its own governor on the people.

Speaking on the outcome of the election through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said it was unfortunate that those whose change was made possible because the then PDP government allowed the people the freedom to make
a choice have now eroded the independence of INEC.

Governor Fayose said: “the stage for the manipulation of the election was set by the use of security agencies to postpone the election, even when there was no single security threat and what was witnessed in Edo State last Wednesday was the execution of the rigging plans perfected after the postponement.”

He said it should be obvious to all lovers of democracy in Nigeria and the international community that the APC led federal government will never allow free and fair election in the country as the PDP and other opposition parties now contest elections against INEC.

He noted that, “the power of the people to choose their governor was completely robbed at gunpoint in Edo State. Unfortunately too, these elements have even murdered the rights of Nigerians to protest against the subversion of their will and it is now obvious that only the
insistence of Nigerians can save democracy in the country.

“Like I have said before, we are already seeing signs of what to come in 2019 and Nigerians should know by now that it will only take their insistence for their votes to count as long as these APC elements remain in power.”

OrlandoOwoh:
Do you now believe in SR "propanda?"

sarrki:
Whenever you have partial contact Pls don't talk

Shewunoshewa:
What Awolowo lost, Abiola gained and what Abiola lost, Obasanjo gained...

If Tinubu loses, another Yoruba will gain...

What have the 'smart' Igbos ever gained?

Who died first - Abiola or Abacha?

No Igbo man/family dead or alive ranks anywhere near Awolowo. Even his wife got a state burial attended by PMB - the 'no 1 enemy'.

You yeasterners are impossible folks...

StOla:
I have no problem with the arrest of people spreading false information as factual news. I remember someone posted popular pictures of Kenyan soldiers yesterday and labelled them as Nigerian soldiers just to paint the already undisciplined Nigerian Army as harassing people in the NigerDelta.

If there's any evidence of him breaking any law, then charge him to court ASAP for prosecution.

Oblang:
And u couldn't challenge the fulani herdsmen raping ur ppl with ur watermelon balls...