Arms scam: Dasuki begs Buhari

 Embattled former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki, yesterday pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to allow him enjoy the bail granted him by the Federal High Court in Abuja.

Buhari said during his first presidential media chat on Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) on Wednesday that Dasuki and Kanu could not be released because they would jump bail, describing the charges against them as serious.

Speaking with Daily Sun on the development yesterday, counsel to Dasuki, Alhaji Ahmed Raji (SAN), said:

 “I would want to appeal to Mr. President to please allow my client to enjoy the bail that was granted to him. I want to beg him in the name of God. I cannot join words with the president. I have the greatest respect for him, both in his official and personal capacities. My appeal is just that I am begging him in the name of God to allow my client to enjoy his bail.”

But former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Prince Lanke Odogiyan  said Buhari’s stand was a manifestation of dictatorship.

The president’s refusal to release Dasuki and Kanu, he warned, was a slide into lawlessness.He urged the NBA, human rights organisations and other non-governmental groups to call the president to order to prevent the nation from sliding into anarchy.

  “It’s disobedience of court order and if it’s not checked, it can lead to consequences beyond our imaginations.  It’s a manifestation of dictatorial tendencies and it should not be encouraged. The president must be advised by his legal handlers. If he is not satisfied with an order of court, the appropriate thing to do is to appeal. But he can’t disobey it, he can’t ignore it.

“The Nigerian Bar Association, NGOs and human rights bodies will speak with one voice to call Mr. President to order. We have to be careful so that we don’t slide into anarchy. No government should pick and choose what orders to obey.”

Chief Ladi Rotimi-Williams (SAN), however, said the president was acting in the overall interest of the nation.

“The president is at a vantage point to know what is good for the nation at any given time. Sambo Dasuki is a very powerful man and you don’t take such powerful men lightly.

“I am sure he (Buhari) has placed the interest of the nation over and above the interest of Sambo Dasuki, ditto for Kanu. He is not doing so because he doesn’t like their faces.”The interest of the nation overrides everything else.”