$2.1bn arms probe: Court decides on bail of Dasuki’s aide today
A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory at Jabi will today (Monday) deliver ruling on the bail application filed by Col. Nicholas Ashinze, a former aide to former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd). Ashinze has been in detention since December 13, 2015. Col. Ashinze had filed a fundamental human rights suit seeking an order releasing him on bail.
He equally prayed the court for an order directing the respondents to tender a public apology and pay him N500 million as compensation for wrongful detention. The respondents in the suit, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the Chief of Army Staff and the Nigerian Army have not shown interest in the matter except EFCC disclosure that Col. Ashinze has been transferred to army custody. Ashinze through his counsel, Chief Mike Ozekhome (SAN), alleged that he had been in custody of the respondents for no verifiable reasons. He urged the court to declare that his arrest and continued detention since December 23, 2015 “without being given any reason and without granting him administrative bail within 24 hours or 48 hours of his arrest and detention, is illegal, wrongful, unlawful and unconstitutional.”
Ozekhome argued that the action of the respondents against his client constituted “a blatant violation” of the Applicant’s fundamental rights as enshrined in sections 34 (1), 35 (1), (3), (4) & (6), 36 (1), 37, 41 (1), 44 (1) and 46 (1) of the 1999 Constitution, as well as various provisions of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Ratification and Enforcement) Act, Cap A9, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004. Even though the respondents shunned the suit, having failed to send any legal representation, Ozekhome, who noted that they were duly served with the court process, prayed Justice Yusuf Haliru to grant his client’s reliefs. Ozekhome urged the court to grant bail to the detainee on self-recognition, especially in view of the fact that none of the respondents filed any counter-affidavit to oppose the suit, stressing that the applicant is still as a serving Colonel in the Nigerian Army.
Citing many judicial precedents, Ozekhome said: “My lord, in law, the facts are deemed admitted for all purposes. In all the cases cited, the courts are clear that you do not need to force a person to file a counter-affidavit as all the facts averred by the applicant are deemed admitted, having not been contradicted with a counter affidavit”.
Among other prayers, the applicant sought an order of the court, directing the respondents to release him and his personal effects, documents as well as his other belongings, which he alleged were illegally seized from him without any warrant during his arrest. He made an alternative prayer for an order granting him bail on self-recognition, “or in the most liberal terms as the court may deem fit to impose in the peculiar circumstances of this case”. Ashinze was arrested and detained in connection with the ongoing investigation into alleged mismanagement of arms’ funds under the immediate past administration
