Dasuki Makes First Appearance In Court After Release, Continues Trial

Sambo Dasuki, the immediate-past former National Security Adviser has today, made his first court appearance following his release from four-year-long detention in December, last year.

Recall that Dasuki had been in detention for a long period of time, despite that he had been granted bail severally by various courts.

Today, he appeared before Justice Ahmed Mohammed of the Federal High Court in Abuja, to continue his trial on charges of money laundering and illegal possession of firearms instituted against him in 2015 by the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation.

Dasuki appeared very relaxed than he had looked in his previous court appearances, and he even chose to remain standing even after he was offered the opportunity to sit in the court.

The Ex-NSA is facing two separate sets of charges of alleged diversion of funds which had been set aside for the procurement of arms which was meant for fighting Boko Haram in the North East.

However, none of the two other cases had been addressed since he was released from detention on December 24, 2019, when he was released from the custody of the Department of State Services.

During the proceedings today, Dasuki through his lawyer, Olukayode Ariwoola, withdrew two separate applications that were filed in protest against his continuation of trial without being released from illegal custody.

While withdrawing the application, Ariwoola said they were already overtaken by the event of the release of his client.

Responding, the prosecuting counsel, Mr. Dipo Okpeseyi(SAN), said he had no objection to the request to have the applications withdrawn.

The judge subsequently struck out the applications and adjourned trial till March 11 and 12.