Monday 20 July 2015

Balarabe Musa condemns Dasuki, Jonathan’S CSO humiliation

Elder statesman, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, has expressed concern over the seeming clampdown on former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), and the immediate past Chief
Security Officer (CSO), Gordon Obua, by the nation’s security high command.


Dasuki
Alhaji Balarabe, a former Governor of old Kaduna State, warned that the development may hurt the new government than currently envisaged.

The Directorate of State Security Services (DSS) on Saturday said that its raid on the Abuja and Sokoto homes of Dasuki last Wednesday was to prevent treasonable felony, adding that the action yielded seven high caliber weapons and 12 exotic cars, five of which were bullet-proof.

Obua, who like Dasuki, served the former administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, has since Thursday last week been detained by the DSS, His lawyer, in a statement on Sunday, claimed that Obua is diabetic and hypertensive. He also alleged that the former CSO was being held in a solitary detention and was being denied meals.

Some other sources claimed that food was made available to him but that he opted for hunger strike.

Balarabe Musa, in an interview with our correspondent however described the development as unfortunate.

He recalled that a similar action by the new government of the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, against the former CSO to the late General Sani Abacha, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha ended badly for the government and the nation.

Alhaji Musa said: “I think the recent clampdown on the National Security Adviser and the Chief Security Officer of the former president is unfortunate. It is also risky for any head of State to deal with an NSA or CSO casually like this.”

He spoke further: “You have to be very careful. Such action must be with the approval of the President. In this case, we talk of security adviser. A President may have authorized a National Security Adviser to do certain things. The President must be sure that the information he gets is based on proper knowledge.

“Remember the case of Al-Mustapha. It almost wrecked the integrity of the President at the time because of the way Al-Mustapha protected the President he served, and by extension the nation. The government then must have regretted the action. An NSA or CSO of a president cannot be humiliated without a good reason.”

Obua’s lawyer, Onochie Onwuegbuna, claimed on Sunday that the detained ex-was being denied medications.

Onwuegbuna, in a press statement on behalf of Obua asked for unconditional release of the former CSO. The lawyer argued that his client was being witch-hunted as part of a plan against “marked” individuals who served and held offices in the Jonathan administration “to implicate them by all means for phantom crimes or offences”.



THE STATEMENT IN FULL

“We have been briefed and our services retained by the family of Mr. Gordon Obua, the Chief Security Officer to former President Goodluck Jonathan (Our Client) in respect of his present harassment and detention by the State Security Services (SSS).
The facts as narrated to us by our Client’s family are as follows: Our Client, a serving officer of the State Security Services was ordered to report to the Headquarters to meet with the Acting Director General (A.D.G).
He consequently reported at the Headquarters at about 9am on the 8th of July 20 15 and he was kept waiting till late in the night by the Acting D.G who finally asked him to report again the next day. The exact situation played out the next day and the day after resulting on our Client reporting to the office of the A.D.G everyday from the 8th of July 2015 till the 16th of July 2015.
On the 3rd day of reporting, our Client was orally informed by the A.D.G that there was a petition against him without telling him the contents of the alleged Petition or the identity or the Petitioner (s).
Our Client requested to be availed a copy of the Petition or its contents to enable him respond accordingly however, his request was not granted, and he was rather told not to worry that such petitions are normal considering the office he previously occupied. On the 16th of July 2015, he reported at the office of the A.D.G by 5pm as directed, and as usual he was kept waiting till about 1am on Friday 17th July 2015 when the A.D.G informed him that he will be detained and he has been in detention since then without being informed what offence (if any) he is alleged to have committed or the reason for his detention. Our Client is hypertensive and diabetic to the knowledge of his employers the SSS. and as a result he has been on daily medications to manage these very severe ailments and since his detention, he has completely been denied access to these medications.
Our Client has also been denied access to members of his family, his doctor and his lawyers and even more worrisome is the information obtained by his family that he has not eaten or drank water ever since he was detained. The actions of the SSS and our Client’s subsequent detention constitute undue harassment and gross violation of his fundamental rights to respect for the dignity of his person and personal liberty as guaranteed by Sections 31 and 35 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In view of the much publicised siege by the SSS on the residences of the Former National Security Adviser coincidentally in the evening of the 16th of July 2015, our Client’s family believe and are justifiably apprehensive that he is being harassed and detained in furtherance of what seems to be a well calculated witch hunt, unlawful harassment gross violation of his fundamental human rights of certain “marked” individuals who served and held offices in the administration of Former President Goodluck Jonathan in other to implicate them by all means for phantom crimes or offences.
This view is further strengthened by the fact that our Client was made to report everyday since the 6th of July 2015, only to be detained in the early hours of Friday 17th of July 2015 which was public holiday with the knowledge that Monday the 20th of July 2015 is also a public holiday.
The aim was clearly to ensure he is kept in detention for the period and to ensure that the earliest date available to his lawyers to approach the Courts to enforce his fundamental right is Tuesday the 21st of July 2015.
Our Client is presently languishing in the custody of the SSS without access to his medication, food, water and drugs or to any member of his family, doctors or his lawyers and in the circumstance, we hereby call on the SSS to immediately release him as he has not been informed the facts and grounds of his detention in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. The general public is also invited to note that the SSS should be held responsible if anything untoward happens to our Client in their custody or subsequently as a consequence of his unlawful detention.”

No comments:

Post a Comment