The Presidency on Tuesday said the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, and the leader of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMAN), Sheikh Ibrahim El-Zakzaky are being held in government facilities in the interest of the nation.
Addressing State House correspondents on the midterm achievements of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Garba Shehu, said Dasuki was being held because he had other cases to answer while El-Zakzaky’s detention was in public interest.
Justice Gabriel Kolawola of an Abuja Federal High Court had in December 2016 ordered the State Security Service (SSS) to release El-Zakzaky. The judge declared that the continuous detention of El-Zakzaky since December 13, 2015 was unlawful and illegal since the issue of protective custody was not known to law or the National Security Agencies Act, establishing the SSS.
Shehu said El-Zakzaky could not be released because government was looking at public and security interest dimensions of his case
“On the issue of El-Zak Zaky, the information we have is that he is being kept more for his own safety that the offences he committed. If you set him free today, what do you think will likely be the reactions out there on the streets of Kaduna or in the streets of Zazzau where he comes from,’’ he said.
Shehu also told journalists that the continued detention of the former National Security Adviser was informed by series of cases against him, stressing that his release might affect the ongoing investigation of the cases.
“It is a common thing in all nations of the world that there are matters of public safety. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, I think has made his points here in the State House, against individuals’ interests. And in all cases, public good should override individual interest,” he said.
Shehu, who briefed alongside Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Femi Adesina, and the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity in the Office of the Vice President, Mr. Laolu Akande, said the President would the 2019 election if he seeks re-election.
He said it was erroneous for anyone to say that Nigerians are disenchanted with the President as a result of the current economic hardship in the country.
“The confidence reposed in Buhari by ordinary Nigerians had remained unshaken because the president, according to him, is doing what they want,” he said.
