DSS continues siege as Dasuki goes to court today to force his rights

Operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, continued to lay siege to the Abuja residence of the former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (retd), last night even as Dasuki will be in court today to enforce his fundamental rights.

The operatives had on Thursday stormed Dasuki’s residence, insisting on delivering to him personally, a letter of invitation for him to appear before a committee set up by the government to probe arms purchase while he (Dasuki) held sway as NSA.

The operatives’ trucks have, however, reduced from two to one as at last night.

Dasuki said last night: “I told them that if it is just a letter of invite, they can drop it with my domestic staff, but they insisted that I must come out and collect it myself.

“I told them that unless they had a warrant allowing them to arrest me, I do not have to collect the letter from them and I am also not going anywhere without my lawyer.”

A Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Ademola Adeniyi, last Tuesday, ordered that the international passport of Dasuki be returned to him to enable him travel outside the country for medical attention.

The former NSA said he shelved the idea of travelling on Wednesday after he received “intelligence” that the DSS planned to arrest him at the airport.

Dasuki had alleged that the DSS was determined to arrest him despite a court order allowing him to travel.

The DSS, however, said its recent “standoff” with Dasuki was different from the case he was being tried for.

“It may be recalled that Sambo was initially arrested and charged to court for unlawful possession of firearms and money laundering, for which reason his international passport was seized and on the order of the court, returned to the registrar for custody,” the DSS said in the statement.

“What has, however, brought the seeming standoff between Sambo and the service, despite the court-ordered release of his international passport on November 4, 2015, is his refusal to appear before a committee undertaking the investigation of an entirely different case,” the service said in a statement signed by one Tony Opuiyo.

Dasuki, however, denied the new claim by the DSS, saying he never received any invitation letter to appear before a committee set up by the present administration to investigate procurement processes relating to any arms transaction by the last administration, under which he served.

Dasuki also added that it was strange that a committee purported to be operating from the Office of the National Security Adviser could have transferred its mandates to the DSS.