President Muhammadu Buhari has given reasons why his government has refused to release a former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki, and the coordinator of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, despite several court directives.
Mr. Dasuki, who is facing trial for allegedly diverting and sharing over $2.2 billion dollars meant for arms procurement for the anti-Boko Haram war, to politicians and cronies, was on Wednesday re-arrested by the State Security Service after he had been granted bail by three different courts.
Mr. Kanu, who is spearheading the quest for an independent nation of Biafra, was earlier granted bail by a Federal high Court sitting in Abuja, but he was also re-arrested by the SSS, which slammed a fresh charge of treasonable felony against him.
Speaking during his first presidential media chat at the presidential Villa in Abuja on Wednesday, Mr. Buhari said the two accused persons cannot be allowed to enjoy any form of freedom due to the enormity of their offenses.
“”If you see the atrocities these people committed against this country, we can’t allow them to jump bail,” he said.
Mr. Buhari said Mr. Dasuki was simply sharing government’s money the way he liked.
“They would just say to Central Bank give so and so, 40 billion naira just like that; 40 billion,” he said.
He also said it would be bad to allow Mr. Dasuki “travel to London to see his doctor” arguing, “What of the over two million people displaced, most of them orphans whose fathers have been killed, what type of government do you want to run? We cannot allow that”.
Mr. Buhari also said despite having two international passports, one for Britain and the other for Nigeria, Mr. Kanu “did not use any of them to come into the country”.
He also said the IPOB leader smuggled in equipment with which he came in to preach hate messages.
