Former NSA, Sambo Dasuki
Prominent Northern Nigerians are pleading with embattled former National Security Adviser, Sambo
Dasuki (rtd) not to go to court in the face of the harassment he is facing from the Department of State Services, DSS.
The DSS had last Thursday afternoon, simultaneously
raided Dasuki’s properties.
They are Nos. 13, John Khadya Street, Nos. 46, Nelson Mandela Street, both at Asokoro, Abuja, and Nos. 3 Sabon Birni Road, Gwiwa Area, Sokoto, Sokoto State.
Speaking to newsmen on Tuesday, a source said the treatment meted out to Dasuki has been a subject of discussion among many Northern elites who believe any court process will lead to disclosure of many other issues not fit for public consumption.
The set of Nigerians include serving and retired senior military officers, traditional rulers, politicians and even insiders in the new government.
“The calibre of personalities that have reached out to him (Dasuki) will shock you,” the source says.
Asked to disclose such persons, he said, “I cannot mention names but they include Generals, Emirs, politicians, as well as loyalists of the current administration.”
“He (Dasuki) is still shocked that the DSS could dig up a charge like ‘treasonable felony’. That itself is libel because you don’t just make such accusation until you have instituted a case.”
The DSS, had in a statement signed by Tony Opuiyo, said the agency was forced to break into the house belonging to Dasuki’s because NSA denied its officers entry into his main residence despite being presented with a genuine and duly signed search warrant.
DSS stated that it acted based on credible intelligence linking the immediate past NSA with alleged plans to commit treasonable felony against the Nigerian State.
The agency accused Sambo of raising a false alarm to the military authorities to come to his aid, “as he failed to correctly tell the military that his property was about to be legitimately searched.”
DSS said Dasuki retired from the Army as a Colonel, and therefore not entitled to have military guards its operatives met on ground.
It disclosed that items found at Dasuki’s house include seven high caliber rifles, (high assault weapons), several magazines and military related gears.
“The team also recovered twelve (12) new vehicles, out of which five (5) were bullet proofs.
These vehicles which are all exotic vehicles were retrieved from Sambo’s residence having failed to produce evidence of ownership,” DSS added.
Commenting on the items found, our source wondered why DSS was portraying Dasuki as though
they were acting a script.
“This is pure witch-hunting, ridicule and persecution.
Those asking Dasuki not to go to court knows that he is being pushed to the wall and that the outcome will not be funny.
“In his three years at that post, he had access to all the classified documents you can think of.
Documents with facts on Boko Haram; documents on political
parties and who their members really are.
We are talking about damning revelations.
“Dasuki had access to list of questionable characters who funded these parties.
He had access to list all those indicted for corruption and other serious charges over the years among others.
Imagine if he divulges such to the whole world.
“Those who have fired the first salvo should not get too comfortable.
No one is saying the man should not be probe, but the law must be followed and people’s rights must be respected.
The source disclosed that the father of the ex-NSA, former Sultan Ibrahim Dasuki, is in fact one of those prevailing on his son not to press charges.
“The father too is unhappy about the whole thing, but has appealed to his son to apply caution.”
“There is a saying that only the elderly knows where a tree will land when a young man is cutting it. His advise has a deep meaning.”
The senior Dasuki, 94, had expressed shock at the invasion of his Sokoto home, calling it unlawful.
The 18th Sultan of Sokoto, deposed by the military regime of the late General Sani Abacha, on Monday in an interview he granted the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation said
“They did not go to Sambo Dasuki’s house, they went to my house.
Sambo Dasuki is almost 60 years old, he is a man of his own.
Can you hold a father responsible for the actions of his son?”
“I don’t know what they were looking for in my house.
Even, I have not spoken with a member of my staff who they opened the house with. They entered into the ceiling of rooms belonging to women and no one said they found anything.
“They entered my portion of the house, there were two safes, they said they found an old Certificate of Occupancy of a house and that in one (of the safes), they found an empty envelop, that is what they said.”
“The container is on one side in the compound.
Aliyu Dasuki (deceased) is my son, I am a younger brother to his father, and his wife is my daughter.
When he died, his wife’s belongings mainly old furniture and mattresses are the things inside the container.
“They opened it. Like I told you before, even the member of my staff who was there, I have not been able to speak with him to know what exactly happened.
“All I have heard is hearsay and if he told me what happened, in the end, like I did before, I will leave everything to Allah.”
