Punch reports that Dasuki through his
lawyer, Mr Jospeh Daudu (SAN) had urged
the court to order the immediate
suspension of his trial until his release
from the custody of the Department of State
Security (DSS) which has been holding him
since December 29, 2015.
The former NSA had previously applied to
the high court of the Federal Capital
Territory (FCT) presided over by Justice
Hussein Baba Yusuf, and the federal high
court, Abuja, presided over by Justice
Ademola Adeniyi, seeking orders to stop
EFCC from further prosecuting him alleging
that his re-arrest was a violation of court
orders granting him bail. Both courts
dismissed the applications.
A five-man panel of the Court of Appeal, in
a unanimous judgment, on Wednesday,
affirmed the high court judges’ rulings to
the effect that Dasuki’s re-arrest and
continued detention did not flout the
orders granting bail to him.
In the lead judgment, Justice Abdul Aboki,
who led the panel, held that Dasuki’s
appeal was incompetent and dismissed it.
He ruled:
“Once the appellant was released
from prison on December 29, 2015,
the order of court admitting him to
bail and releasing him from prison,
where he was detained, has been
complied with.
“The order was not complied with by
the EFCC as it was not the subject
and it was not directed at it. For this
reason, it is fallacious to argue that
the EFCC did not comply or had
disobeyed the court order for bail.
The order was discharged by another
agency of government – the
Controller of Prisons.
“The power to punish for disobedience
to court order is quasi-criminal, and
by Section 36(9) of the 1999
Constitution, no person is guilty of
any act or omission that was not an
offence at the time it was
committed. In the instant appeal, the
trial judge in his ruling, giving right to
this appeal, said he did not make any
order against Dasuki’s re-arrest.”
Comments
Post a Comment