By Okoi Obono-Obla
[I]t is apparent that Femi Falana (SAN) is not well conversant with the facts of Dasuki’s case otherwise he would not have argued that the Federal Government of Nigeria disobeyed the order concerning Dasuki’s bail. ( Falana’s article was published in this newspaper on Sunday)
Dasuki was initially arrested and charged to Court by the DSS on allegation of possession of firearms . He brought an application for his bail which was granted.
However before he perfected his bail conditions , the DSS re-arrested him on another allegation of misappropriation of the money budgeted for the purchase of military hardware for the military to fight Boko Haram
This was after a Panel set up by the National Security Adviser , General Mungono (rtd) headed by Retired Air Vice Marshal John Ode had submitted a Report indicting Dasuki and others of mismanagement of money budgeted for purchase of military hardware.
Immediately the Report was made public, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the arrest and prosecution of all those indicted in the Report.
This is how Dasuki was re-arrested . In other words, Dasuki was re-arrested for a different crime from which he was initially arrested and granted bail.
This is legal and proper in law because the facts of the previous case is different from the subsequent one.
However , the Federal Government of Nigeria brought a motion before Honourable Justice AFA Ademola seeking the Court to set aside the bail earlier granted Dasuki.
Justice Ademola in a considered ruling dismissed the motion and ordered the Federal Government to comply with his previous order.
The Federal Government of Nigeria filed a motion seeking for a stay of execution upon lodging an appeal against the ruling of Justice Ademola refusing to set aside his previous order granting bail to Dasuki.
In December 2015 when the motion was scheduled for hearing ,the Counsel to Dasauki filed a Notice of Preliminary Objection challenging the jurisdiction of the Court to hear the motion filed by the Federal Government seeking for an order of stay of execution of the Order granting bail to Dasuki on the ground that the Federal Government was in disobedience of the Order granting bail to Dasuki.
This stalled the hearing of the motion filed by the Federal Government seeking for a stay of execution because the Federal Government ‘s legal team was served in Court that morning with the Notice of Preliminary Objection filed by Dasuki’s counsel and needed time to react. The case was accordingly adjourned to the 21st January 2016 for hearing.
So factually and technically and indeed in law, it is wrong for anybody to suggest that the Federal Government of Nigeria is in disobedience of order granting bail to Dasuki.
In law when a party has appealed against a court order and sought a stay of execution of such order, that Party cannot be said to be in disobedience of that order.
In Kanu Nnamdi’s case, the offence which he was previously charged with and granted bail is also different from the subsequent one which the DSS re-arrested him
Chief (Barr) Okoi Obono-Obla, was a member of the Legal and Security Directorates of APC Presidential Campaign Council
