The detained former National Security
Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, is still not disposed to appearing before the
Federal High Court in Abuja.....
to testify in defense of a former National
Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Olisa Metuh,
despite the witness summons of the court ordering him to appear in that
regard on Tuesday (tomorrow).
It was learnt from court officials on
Sunday that Dasuki, through his lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), had
appealed against the October 25 ruling of Justice Okon Abang who
dismissed his application challenging the subpoena ordering him to
appear in court.
The court official said, “In addition,
Dasuki’s team filed an application for stay of execution of the ruling
of Justice Abang and impliedly the judgment of the Court of Appeal
delivered on September 25 directing Justice Abang to sign the said
subpoena and have it served on Dasuki who is the custody of the
Department of State Services.
“You will recall that Justice Abang had
signed the subpoena as far back as October 3 in compliance with the
Court of Appeal’s judgment and directed that Dasuki should be produced
in court on October 25.
“But Dasuki did not appear in court on
October 25, so the judge, after hearing his motion challenging the
subpoena issued against him, ordered that he should be produced in court
on October 31. It is the October 25 ruling that he (Dasuki) appealed
against.”
The PUNCH learnt on Sunday that
Dasuki, who did not appear in court on October 25 as earlier ordered by
the court, had on the same October 25, filed the motion seeking an
order of stay of execution of the court’s order directing him to appear
in court on October 31.
Our correspondent learnt on Sunday that
the trial judge fixed October 31 for the hearing of Dasuki’s stay of
execution of the court’s October 25 ruling.
Justice Abang had, in his ruling
delivered on October 25, struck out an application by Dasuki, seeking an
order setting aside the subpoena directing him (the ex-NSA) to appear
in court to testify on behalf of Metuh.
The judge ruled that having been ordered
by the Court of Appeal in Abuja on September 29, 2017, to sign and
ensure the service of the subpoena on Dasuki, he lacked jurisdiction to
hear and determine the motion on merit.
He held that determining Dasuki’s motion
on merit would amount to an attempt to review the judgment of a higher
court, the Court of Appeal.
He held that all issues raised by
Dasuki, through his lawyer, Raji, had become academic since the court
lacked jurisdiction to hear the complaints.
According to the judge, to proceed to hear Dasuki’s application would amount to “judicial anarchy.”
During the same October 25 proceedings,
Justice Abang gave the court bailiff five days to serve former President
Goodluck Jonathan with the witness summons compelling him to appear in
court with respect to Metuh’s trial.
The court also ordered the counsel
prosecuting Metuh, Mr. Sylvanus Tahir, to persuade the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission to explore administrative means of ensuring
that the DSS produced Dasuki in court on October 31.
Upon applications by Metuh, the court
had issued two separate subpoenas on Jonathan and Dasuki, compelling
them to appear in court on Wednesday.
Jonathan and Dasuki were summoned by the
court upon Metuh’s application requesting that they be ordered to
testify in his defence with respect to the sum of N400m which he was
said to have received fraudulently from the Office of the NSA in 2014.
But the two summoned witnesses were absent from court on Wednesday.
Ruling after hearing the lawyers
involved in the case on Wednesday, Justice Abang noted that without the
two summoned witnesses appearing, it would be difficult for the court to
make any progress in the case.
In compliance with the court’s order,
our correspondent learnt on Sunday that the acting Chairman of the EFCC,
Ibrahim Magu, had personally written the Director General of the DSS,
Lawal Daura, requesting that the ex-NSA be produced in court on Tuesday
as directed by the court.
Meanwhile, Metuh had indicated in a
statement last week that he had asked his legal team to review his
request to call Jonathan as a witness, following the backlash he had
received with respect to the case.
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