The former National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, Mr Olisa Metuh, has asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to order the arrest of the Director-General of the Department of State Security after the agency failed to produce Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd) in court.
Mr Metuh’s counsel had made the request on Tuesday at the resumption of his trial by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for allegedly receiving N400m fraudulently from the office of National Security Adviser and on charges involving cash transaction involving $2m.
The request came after the prosecutor, Mr Sylvanus Tahir, informed the court that even though the EFCC wrote to the DSS asking it to produce the former National Security Adviser in court, the DSS failed to do so.
Tahir said the legal adviser to the DSS told him that Dasuki refused to come to court on the grounds that his legal team advised him not to do so.
But Metuh’s counsel, however, countered the explanation by asking to court to issue a warrant of arrest against the DSS DG because the explanation by Tahir showed that the DSS lacked respect for the court and are playing games with it.
According to him, it is absurd that a detainee appears more powerful than the court.
Counsel to Dasuki, however, told the court that lacked the jurisdiction to hear an appeal filed by his client.
The former NSA had approached the court seeking a stay of the subpoena it issued for his appearance as a defence witness pending the determination of his application before the appeal court.
Dasuki’s counsel added that as a result of the motion it had filed before the court of appeal, he has filed a motion before the Federal High Court seeking to withdraw an earlier motion he filed seeking an order of stay of proceedings on all things related to the subpoena, pending the determination of the motion before the appeal court.
He also asked the court to expunge the submissions of the prosecutor that Colonel Dasuki refused to appear before the court. According to him, it is a misleading and baseless hearsay against his client.
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