Sule Lamido, immediate past governor of Jigawa State, has stated that the release of Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) from detention by the office of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Abubakar Malami, shows that it had nothing to do with $2.1 billion arms deal or corruption.
Lamido, maintained that the detention of the former NSA was as a result of personal misunderstanding between Dasuki and President Muhammadu Buhari, The Nation quoted him to have told The Guardian in a telephone conversation.
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He said: “It had nothing to do with corruption. Dasuki was invited and interrogated. And after, he was formally arraigned, thus making his case a subject of the law. For him to be detained a day longer after the court granted him bail was illegal, unconstitutional and very primitive of the government to do so. It was not about the money they said he spent.
“There was a ruling by Justice Binta Nyako that an officer should not be held liable for actions taken in exercise of his office and based on orders of a superior, more so on the order of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he was quoted as saying.
He also likened what Dasuki is being allegedly persecuted for to the Tradermoni, which Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, was given to share, stressing that there was no way Osinbajo could have embarked on the exercise without Buhari’s knowledge and consent.
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“So, the case of Dasuki was not ab initio, based on any missing money or corruption,” he said. “He did not commit any crime, because he was acting on the orders of former President Goodluck Jonathan,” he also said.
As to whether the federal government responded to public outcry and international pressure over Dasuki’s release, Lamido, who was once Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister stated:
“Even Pharaoh has conscience and sometimes it pricks him. Also public outcry must have compelled the government to do the proper thing. President Buhari has a history of flouting the rule of law. He observed recently that Nigeria’s democracy is too slow for him. Detaining Dasuki in spite of court ruling is his own trademark, his own character and judgment.
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“When a leader subjects citizens to intimidation, demonizing them so that he is feared instead of respected, the country is doomed.”
Malami on Tuesday, ordered the Department of States Services (DSS), to release Dasuki and Omoyele Sowore, convener of #Revolution Now movement in Nigeria.
There had been public outcry over their continued illegal detention, after the government refused to release them, despite meeting their various bail conditions.
Dasuki had been detained since December 2015.
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