The Community
Court of the Economic Community of West African States on Monday declared the
arrest and continued detention of former National Security
Adviser, Col. Sambo
Dasuki (retd), unlawful, arbitrary and a violation of his right to liberty.
The court
ordered that he be immediately released from the custody of the Department of
State Service, whose operatives re-arrested him shortly after he was released
from prison on bail with respect to his ongoing trial.
The court said
it was wrong for the Federal Government to continue to detain him over
undisclosed offences after he had been granted bail by three different courts
before which he had been arraigned.
The court, in
a unanimous judgment of a three-man panel read by Justice Friday Chijioke
Nwoke, also awarded N15m damages against the Federal Government.
It ordered
government to release Dasuki immediately and also his properties that were
confiscated by state’s agents.
The court,
which held that the Nigerian State was unable to substantiate its continued
detention of Dasuki, also faulted the search of his houses in Abuja and Sokoto
without valid search warrant.
The judgment
was on a fundamental rights enforcement suit filed earlier this year by Dasuki. Punch
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