ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Department of State Security (DSS) has denied that its operatives blocked the residence of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), in violation of a subsisting court order granting him a relief to travel overseas for medical treatment.
The DSS in a statement signed on Thursday by Mr. Tony Opuiyo, however clarified that his home was being besieged for his refusal to honour the invitation of the Presidential Probe Panel on Weapons Purchase.
“The attention of the DSS has been brought to the report making rounds that its operatives illegally blocked the residence of the former NSA, Sambo Dasuki (Col/Rtd), in violation of a subsisting court order granting him a relief to travel oversea for medical services.
“This is to say the least that such report is not only unfounded and malicious but aimed at tarnishing the good image of the Service,” Opuiyo clarified.
He recalled that Dasuki was initially arrested and charged to court for unlawful possession of firearms and money laundering, for which reason his international passport was seized and on the order of the court, returned to the registrar for custody.
“What has however brought the seeming standoff between Sambo and the Service, despite the court-ordered release of his international passport on 4th November, 2015, is his refusal to appear before a Committee undertaking the investigation of an entirely different case,” he explained.
He noted “that the government set up the Committee to investigate procurement processes relating to a two billion dollars ($2billion) arms transaction by the last administration, under which Sambo was the NSA”.
It was on this premise, he said, that he was invited by the Committee to shed more light on his involvement in the deal.
Opuiyo said that it “remains surprising and shocking that Sambo has refused to honour invitations of the Committee but instead resorts to grandstanding and subtle blackmail of the Service”.
He remarked that Dasuk’s refusal to appear before the Committee has left the Service with no option than to adopt legal means to ensure his attendance.
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He opined that the former NSA “is pulling all strings available to him to evade justice and put the Service in bad light.
“The simple fact is that the DSS is not persecuting him”, he said.
Opuiyo urged Nigerians to “disregard the impression being created by him”, adding that the Service is committed to the rule of law and strict adherence to democratic ideals”.
He, however, warned that any person or group, no matter how highly placed, that may wish to test the will of the present democratic dispensation, would definitely be checked through the legal provisions of the law.
Dasuki: DSS Denies Disobeying Court Order; Says Ex-NSA must face panel on arms purchase
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