Why Dasuki trial took over a year to commence

The trial of former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki accused of $2.1 billion fraud before an FCT High Court finally took off January 25 after delays lasting over a year.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) first charged Dasuki before Justice Husseini Baba-Yusuf of the FCT High Court 4 on a 19-count charge bordering on money laundering and criminal breach of trust on December 14, 2015.

He was arraigned alongside a former Director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Baba Kusa and Director of Finance and Administration in the Office of the NSA, Shuaibu Salisu.

A day later, Dasuki was again arraigned on a 22-count charge before Justice Peter Affen of the FCT High Court 24 on charges of criminal breach of trust and diversion of public fund on the pretext of purchasing arms for security agencies.

Former Sokoto State governor, Attahiru Bafarawa; former minister of state for finance, Bashir Yuguda, and three others are co-defendants in this charge.

Dasuki and all co-defendants in the two charges were granted bail by the courts. However, while the other defendants are already enjoying their bail conditions, Dasuki is still being held in custody.

A legal tussle on jurisdiction of the courts and applications to consolidate the charges has, along with other factors, stalled the commencement of the trials since arraignments took place.

To move things forward, the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court, Justice Ishaq Bello, on October 21, 2016 ordered that the case file (the 22-count charge) before Justice Affen be transferred to Justice Baba-Yusuf.

Apart from the legal tussle and the death of Dasuki’s father, the trial was also stalled over the absence due to illness of Salisu a co-defendant in the matters on 07/12/2016.

Justice Baba-Yusuf thereafter shifted the re-arraignment in the 22-count charge to January 24, 2017. Upon arraignment, the judge adjourned the trial to March 13 at the instance of Dasuki’s lawyer.

On January 25, the trial in the 19-count charge finally took off when the trial judge gave the prosecution the go ahead to call its first witness.

Before then, Dasuki, had through his lawyer, Ahmed Raji (SAN) prayed the court for a leave of court to file an application to ensure the two separate charges are consolidated. He told the court the essence of the case file of the 22-count charge being transferred from Justice Affen’s court is to ensure proper case management by merging it with the 19-count charge.

He told the court that the application was not filed earlier because fresh arraignment only took place a day earlier in the transferred case and applying for consolidation of charges before re-arraignment would have been premature.

Prosecution counsel, Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) objected to the application citing an agreement by all counsels in the matters. He said they had agreed that the two cases be brought before the same court but tried independently.

He added that it was based on this agreement that the CJ agreed to transfer the case file before Justice Affen to Justice Baba-Yusuf’s court so the latter could hear the two matters.

He rued the fact that the trial had been put on hold for over a year, which he said was against the provision of Section 396(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015 which states that “Upon arraignment, the trial of the defendant shall proceed on day-to-day until the conclusion of the trial”.

Justice Baba-Yusuf ruled that Dasuki should wait on filing his application for the consolidation of charges preferred against him while giving go-ahead for the trial to commence.

“Since the witness is in court, I think it is better to allow this case to begin. The essence of coming here is to make sure that the business of the day is executed. And I’m not going to come here and end up doing nothing”, the Judge said.

The judge added that the fact that he was allowing a witness to be called to commence the trial does not mean he is precluding the consolidation application. “We will go into hearing now… reason being that the matter has dragged over time”, he ruled.

The trial continues March 16 with further testimony from the first prosecution witness and hearing on the consolidation application.

Apart from these two charges before the FCT High Court, Dasuki is also standing trial before Justice Ramat Mohammed of the Federal High Court, Abuja after former trial judge, Justice Adeniyi Ademola hands off the matter on October 18, 2016.

Justice Mohammed adjourned the matter to March 1st for hearing of the federal government’s application to shield witnesses that will testify in the matter.