Justice Baba Yusuf of the Abuja High Court has said that the two sets of charges brought against former National Security Adviser, Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd.), cannot be consolidated because of so many defendants involved in the charges.

The judge said that the two charges, if merged will make the trial difficult for the court to manage and therefore declined to consolidate the charges.

Delivering ruling in a motion argued by Dasuki in which he prayed the court to consolidate the two charges against him so as not to suffer double jeopardy, Justice Yusuf said that the applicant has not shown to the court that he had been tried or convicted on the same offence before any other court.

The judge held that the fear of double jeopardy was not substantiated because trials in the two charges had not started in full.

The court said that it is premature for the applicant to raise the issue of double jeopardy and abuse of court process more especially when there was no evidence pointing to that direction yet in the trial.

Besides, Justice Yusuf said the alleged offences which brought about the two charges were not committed in one transaction and that consolidation of the two charges would make the trial cumbersome and difficult because of the high number of the defendants involved in the two charges.

He also said that the suggested consolidation if granted will also work against accelerated trial of the two charges which had earlier been granted by the court.

It would be recalled that Dasuki had alleged before the Court that the Federal Government planned to ambush him with double jeopardy in the two criminal charges brought against him at the court and pleaded that the two charges be consolidated in the interest of justice, fair play and due process.

Dasuki who has been illegally detained after being granted multiple bails by courts, had said that the Federal Government in the quest to nail him had engaged in gross abuse of court and legal process by instituting various criminal charges against him on just one issue of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA).

In the motion he filed to challenge the alleged abuse of court process by government, Dasuki said that it was wrong in law and even against natural justice for the government to prosecute him on two different charges on the same alleged arms fund diversion. In the motion argued by his lead counsel, Mr. Joseph Daudu (SAN) the former NSA insisted that the two charges be consolidated by the authorities of the court in the interest of justice in order to rescue him from double jeopardy planned for him by government.

The motion on notice was brought pursuant to sections 6(6)(a); 36(5) & (9) of the 1999 constitution (as amended); section 1(1); 208;396 (3); 491 & 492(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015; section 25 of the Interpretation Act Dasuki sought an order of the court consolidating Charge No. FCT/HC/CR 2015 between FRN vs. Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) & 4 others with charge No. FCT/HC/CR/2015 between FRN vs. Bashir Yuguda, Col. Mohammed Sambo Dasuki & 4 others.

The others parties in the matter are former Director of Finance and Administration, ONSA, Shuaibu Salisu; former General Manager, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Aminu Babakusa and two firms: Acacia Holdings Limited and Reliance Referral Hospital Limited. (PRNigeria)

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