Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has dismissed the Department of State Service (DSS) ‘s request to re-present for admission exhibits rejected by the court in the trial of former national security adviser (NSA) Col. Sambo Dasuki, on unlawful possession of firearms.
The court yesterday dismissed the request by the DSS lead lawyer, Oladipupo Okpeseyi (SAN).
Justice Lifu held they remained rejected since the exhibits were marked as such due to an inappropriate foundation for their admission and a lack of relevance to the charge.
The judge said that admitting them through the back door as requested by the prosecution would amount to judicial rascality and pettiness, which the court cannot afford to dabble in.
Similarly, Justice Lifu held that toeing the prosecution’s path would put his court in the dangerous position of sitting as the Court of Appeal over his own decision.
“I recall that on July 10, 2025, I delivered a considered ruling, rejecting the same sets of exhibits due to improper foundation for their admission and lack of relevance to the charge. That ruling still subsists and I am bound by it.
“Any attempt to toe the paths of going against the same ruling will definitely amount to judicial rascality, pettiness. Common sense does not even support granting this kind of request.
This court rejects the invitation and the request is hereby rejected.
Okpeseyi applied to Justice Lifu on September 25 to move the court’s sitting to DSS Headquarters in Abuja to inspect some vehicles said to have been recovered in Dasuki’s house during a 2015 search warrant.
He said that the vehicles have been parked at the DSS headquarters for the past 10 years and should be inspected by the court before being admitted as exhibits against Dasuki.
Apparently taken aback by the request, the Judge had requested to know the nature of the exhibits to be inspected at the DSS headquarters.
In response, the DSS lawyer informed the judge that they were those listed on the search warrant as items 18 to 28 and recovered from the Abuja house of the retired Army Officer.
When reminded that the exhibits had been rejected and marked so by the same court, the senior lawyer claimed that he had the right to represent them for the court to admit them against the defendant.
While arguing the application for representation of the rejected exhibits, Okpeseyi SAN had cited several authorities, adding that the exhibits were marked rejected in the previous proceedings because the foundation for tendering them for admission at the time was not properly laid.
He said the exhibits were rejected merely on improper foundation for admission and not on their irrelevance to the trial and urged the court to grant his request.
However, in a vehement objection to the request, counsel to Dasuki, Mr A. A. Usman, had said that the application by Okpeseyi was strange and unknown to law, adding that once an exhibit is rejected and marked so by the court, it stands rejected.
Usman had submitted that Justice Lifu, having decided on the exhibits, cannot revisit the same exhibits and admit them through the back door.
