The Federal Government may have appointed a private legal practitioner, Mr. Oladipupo Okpeseyitan as the prosecutor for the money laundering case it is pressing against the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd).
Okpeseyitan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, made his formal appearance when the case of the enforcement of human rights by Dasuki, which is being opposed by the Federal Government came up for hearing at the Federal High Court Abuja.
After announcing his appearance as the FG’s lawyer in the case, Okpeseyitan, said that the government had formally applied for the stay of execution in the earlier judgment by the court granting Dasuki leave to travel abroad for medical treatment.
He applied to the court to put the ruling on hold pending the outcome of the appeal on the case.
IN the meantime, Dasuki has denied media reports linking him with implicating Peoples Democratic Party top shots, who received heavy payments from security funds from his office.
The former NSA said he neither mentioned nor implicated anyone as having collected arms funds from his office.
Dasuki, who spoke through his lawyer, Mr. Ahmed Raji, said he never made such statement or name anyone to EFCC and wondered where the authors got their information from.
Raji said: “I was with Dasuki yesterday and wish to make categorical statement that my client never made any statement of such nature or naming anybody or group in any statement.
“Quote me anywhere, Dasuki has not done anything like that. It is absolutely untrue. It is the figment of the imagination of the authors aimed at creating falsehood for reasons best known to them and Nigerians should disregard them.
“They are just out to scandalise the man, bring his image and character into disrepute so that his friends and well wishers can run away from him. They want him deserted and that will fail,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dasuki’s mouthpiece, PR Nigeria, has defended him, insisting that it is not all the funds in the office of the NSA that were meant for arms acquisition as is being bandied about.
According to the group, the ONSA manages several funds for national security and other special interventions which are not related to Boko Haram or arms procurement.
PR Nigeria mentioned such funds to include: recurrent expenditures and miscellaneous expenses under Special Service Office (SSO) to fund special projects and programmes including capacity building, refreshment, travelling, office maintenance, crisis communication and supports to special causes and Non-Governmental Organisations.
It said: “Most of the figures being bandied were taken from the special funds meant for the purposes that they were spent and not on the so-called arms deal.
“All over the world, there are lots of expenditures of national security and sensitive matters that are not ridiculed in the press.”
The case has been fixed for December 8, 2015 for hearing.
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