Former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), has told Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, to turn down the request by the Department of the State Services (DSS) to re-present exhibits once rejected by the court in the trial against him.
Recall that the DSS had dragged the former NSA before the court over unlawful possession of firearms.
The court fixed October 14 for ruling following request to re-present the rejected exhibits by the DSS lead lawyer, Oladipupo Okpeseyi, SAN.
In a surprise move, Okpeseyi, SAN, in the middle of the proceedings applied orally to Justice Lifu to shift the sitting of the court to DSS Headquarters in Abuja for the purpose of inspecting some vehicles said to have been recovered in Dasuki’s house why executing a 2015 search warrant.
He said that the vehicles have been parked at the DSS headquarters in the past 10 years and should be inspected by the court for the purpose of admitting them as exhibits against Dasuki.
Apparently taken aback by the request, the Judge requested to know the nature of the exhibits to be inspected at the DSS headquarters.
In response, Counsel to Dasuki, Mr Aliyu Usman, from Ahmed Raji Chambers, submitted that the court, having taken a decision on the exhibits previously, cannot revisit the same exhibits and admit them again.
He read out the earlier ruling of the Judge where it was clearly stated that the rejected exhibits had no relevance to the alleged unlawful possession of firearms and thus failed the test of admissibility.
Dasuki’s lawyer argued that the only option opened to the DSS was to go to the Court of Appeal to challenge the earlier rejection of the exhibits rather than inviting the same Judge to sit as an Appeal Court on the same matter.
He pleaded with Justice Lifu to throw away the application as baseless, ill-conceived, misplaced, unwarranted and a ploy to draw the hand of clock backward.
After taking the arguments for and against, Justice Lifu fixed October 14 to deliver ruling on the application and for continuation of trial.
