The Federal Government on Thursday said the embattled former National Security Adviser, NSA, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) was still being held in custody of the Department of State Services, DSS, because he poses great threat to national security.
Federal Government’s lawyer, T.D. Kabiru made the explanation while arguing against the release of the former NSA at the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, court, Abuja.
Kabiru alleged that the amount of illegal weapons recovered from Dasuki’s Abuja home and the intelligence report at the disposal of the nation’s security agencies has it that more arms and ammunitions have not being recovered, this he said justified Dasuki’s continued detention.
The embattled former NSA had dragged the Federal Government before the court, challenging his continued detention by the DSS despite being granted bail by several courts.
But Kabiru in his argument said, “The position of the defence, which is not controverted by the applicant, is that the arms and ammunition recovered during the search is not the only arms and ammunition in the possession of the applicant.
“There is fear that he has more. There is intelligence report that some are yet to be recovered. That we fear he has more is a ground to hold him. There are on-going investigations which are revealing fresh facts concerning him.
“The right of an individual cannot supersede the security of a country when there is intelligence report to suspect the conduct of the individual. The applicant did not deny that these guns were recovered from his house.
“By Section 3 of the Firearms Act, CAP F28 LFN 2004, Part One of the Schedule thereof prescribes the arms that cannot be licensed for individual’s possession. The arms found in his house fall into this category of prohibited arms.
“Since they were illegally kept by the applicant, the deduction is that they were kept for illegal purposes. The Federal Republic of Nigeria has justified, with the evidence it has placed before the court, the detention of the applicant on ground of his own safety, and for the safety of other Nigerians by virtue of the security report received by the DSS.”
Comentários